CIA nominee Gina Haspel faced a congressional grilling: Kennedy

CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel has some congressional grill marks on her backside, and while a lot of senators had some pointed questions for the dominatrix of doom, she'll probably be confirmed as our nation's top spy.

California Senator Kamala Harris did her best future-presidential-candidate impression by pointedly asking whether torture is immoral.

Hiding behind the old Army field manual, how convenient. There were senators who questioned the wisdom of relitigating mistakes from 17 years ago, and to them I would say we are still very much living our post-9/11 blunders in Iraq and especially Afghanistan.

It would be lovely but naive to think those bad choices were safely destroyed like so many damaging video tapes.

They still actively manifest in the demented brains and damaged souls of terrorists who have proliferated despite heavy handed and poorly managed torture.

Torture wasn't moral 17 years ago, and despite Haspel's aw-schucks silver-tongued promises, it's not a far stretch to think a CIA director all too familiar with such reprehensible practices could put us on an enhanced handcart to hell.

We are still stinking up the Middle East in smoldering, costly wars, torture doesn't work (and pointing that out doesn't make you a big fat softy), and appointing a career spy to head the CIA in no way guarantees our dirty laundry and dark secrets will stay dead and buried forever.