To the Point

Is Dick Cheney Losing His Clout?

In Panama today, President Bush said, we "have an obligation to protect the American people" in the war on terror but, "we do not torture." This, despite Vice President Cheney's effort to exempt the CIA from a Senate resolution requiring US interrogators to stick to the Geneva Conventions. News reports say there is growing resistance to Cheney's stand from the State Department, the Pentagon and even the West Wing. Should the interrogators be free to use "any means necessary" when American lives are at stake? Will a weakened Vice President mean a loss of executive Power for the Bush White House? We hear from political scientists, former officials from the CIA and Defense Department and a journalist who contributed to the reports of the high-level resistance to Cheney's hard line on the treatment of terrorist suspects. Making News: Muslim Youth Riots Continue Across FranceAll of France is braced for a twelfth night of the rioting that has killed one man and injured policemen who've been fired at in Paris. Officials say there must be a restoration of order before they address the grievances of young Muslims. John Carreyrou, who reports from Paris for the Wall Street Journal, says that second- and third-generation immigrants are protesting unemployment and a lack of acceptance.Reporter's Notebook: IRS May Revoke Tax-Exempt Status of Liberal ChurchOn October 31, 2004, Rev. George Regas addressed All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. He told the congregation that "good people of profound faith" could vote for either George Bush or John Kerry, but reminded that Jesus would have opposed the war in Iraq. Now, the Internal Revenue Service says the California church may lose its tax-exempt status for "intervening in political campaigns and elections." Alan Wolfe is Director of the Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.