Eric Kleefeld November 10, 2010, 12:47 PM

During an appearance last night on The O’Reilly Factor, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Bill O’Reilly tried to sort out just why liberals seem to be so up in arms about former President George W. Bush’s authorization of waterboarding.

“He protected us. He had to dunk these three guys. And he did, and he got information. And, we captured a whole bunch of really bad, bad people from it,” said O’Reilly. “Could he have gotten it another way? Maybe, maybe, okay? But, he had guys sitting there, he had psychiatrists sitting there, he had medical doctors sitting there. So, to me, I would have done the same thing. But to hear the left, this is the worst thing the United States has ever done, we’re a terrible country for doing it. Why? Why are they doing this?”

Bachmann then replied sternly: “Well, it almost seems as though they need to come up with some sort of a case to defend the people who are making this action, the radical terrorist. And here, take a look at the terrorists who have beheaded people like Daniel Pearl. They don’t think twice about that.”

Bachmann’s implication that liberals didn’t care about terrorists beheading Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was too much for even O’Reilly. (It’s unclear whether the “They don’t think twice about that” line was meant refer to liberals not caring about it, or to the terrorists who don’t think twice about doing it.)

“I don’t know that that’s fair though, Congressman (sic),” O’Reilly replied. “I think liberal people are very, very angered that Daniel Pearl and other Americans have been murdered.”

“Oh, of course. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest that,” Bachmann replied. “But they’re trying to find some sort of a defense here, because it seems that America is always wrong. America is always the bad guy in their scenario.”

Bill O'Reilly, George W. Bush, Michele Bachmann, Torture, Waterboarding