ross douthat's first column as designated nyt conservative is pretty interesting: sort of a nice bold counterfactual premise. but it's also kind of overly cagey or cute. i haven't read his stuff before, and i don't know whether this is a stalking horse for the defense of torture, or whether it expresses sincere admiration for cheney, or whether it is sincere in just sort of wishing we'd had a straighter debate on the bush legacy in the campaign.