Exhibit A: Dick Cheney to a conservative radio host.

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al-Qaida suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called "water-boarding," which creates a sensation of drowning.

Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn't regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney said at one point in an interview.

Exhibit B: Tony Snow at the White House:

"You know as a matter of common sense that the vice president of the United States is not going to be talking about water boarding. Never would, never does, never will," Snow said, according to the Reuters news agency. "You think Dick Cheney's going to slip up on something like this? No, come on."

So: will it be me or your lying eyes? And "as a matter of common sense" Cheney wouldn't be endorsing torture. Oh, no, wait, that's a matter of common decency.