What happened to the sensible center?

Talking Points Memo: "If majority US public opinion still clusters around the political center, why have US politics moved so hard to the right? That's the subject we're discussing this week at TPMCafe Book Club as we discuss Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson. Also joining us for the discussion will be Mark Schmitt, Ruy Teixeira, and Matt Yglesias."

Meantime, there's this assertion by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice: "The United States does not transport and has not transported detainees from one country to another for the purpose of interrogation using torture."

They're not buying it on Talking Points Memo. Neither am I. As Michael D. aptly observes:

It's a non-denial denial, because what they define as torture is some act that causes organ failure and death. Anything up to organ failure and death is not torture according to the adminsitration.