Sean Hannity, the man unafraid to go where any other conservative might be. Even as conservatives push each other out of the line to get in front of the cameras and denounce Sarah Palin's stupid remarks about waterboarding as some kind of perverted baptismal rite, Hannity steps into the gap with his gallant defense.

By the way, Sarah Palin gets the cut of the weekend. Waterboarding! That's how we baptize terrorists. You know every liberal in the country -- "That's outrageous!

For the most part, liberals said "what else is new?" But conservatives were an entirely different matter.

And then there's Sean Hannity, that "good Catholic boy." He did not denounce them. Instead he ignored baptism's symbolism and went on a tear about what one might do if one's child was kidnapped by a terrorist and you caught the terrorist but didn't find the child. Or something.

It became an indefensible defense of torture, while completely ignoring the idea that Christians -- which he claims to be -- do not view baptism as simply the act of sprinkling water or dunking someone in it because they want to get wet. Or get information. Christians view baptism as a sacred and symbolic joining in Christ's death and resurrection.

Neither Hannity nor Palin have enough brain cells to understand this, but the ones they most need to fear aren't liberals. It's their own allies, who take their religion a little more seriously.