The Congress party has pulled off a dramatic election victory, giving Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a second term in office.

Next Thursday, former Vice President Cheney will give a speech at the American Enterprise Institute making a global case for the Bush administration’s use of torture and indefinite detainment of suspected terrorists as core parts of its War on Terror.

Here’s AEI’s description of the event …

In April 2009, almost eight years after the deadliest terrorist attack in American history, the Obama administration released four memos from the Bush administration’s Office of Legal Counsel. These memos, which justified the use of harsh interrogation techniques against high-level al Qaeda detainees such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, have reignited a fierce debate about the United States’ counterterrorism strategy.

Amid claims that the interrogation methods amount to torture and that those who approved them should be prosecuted or censured, it is clear that we know surprisingly little about the scope and efficacy of the Bush administration’s national security policy. Many questions linger: What type of information did enhanced interrogation methods yield? Were lives saved as a result? Could that intelligence have been effectively collected by other means? How effective was the terrorist surveillance program in detecting the threat of al Qaeda and its operatives in the post-9/11 period? Will inhibiting these procedures cost more American lives?

On May 21, former vice president Dick Cheney will speak at AEI to address these critical issues and provide a blueprint for keeping America safe in the future.

Bernard Avishai on the many reasons to see Bibi Netanyahu for exactly what he is.

No doubt, the big story starting off the week. In GQ, Robert Draper does a first look back at Don Rumsfeld’s tenure at the DOD, with a focus on internal briefing documents which wrapped the day’s military events out of Iraq with smoteful biblical quotations about the righteous conquering the wicked and the infidel.

Here’s the slideshow.

President Obama will deliver the Notre Dame commencement speech today, and receive an honorary degree. That and other political news in today’s TPMDC Sunday Roundup.

Don’t miss Bernie Avishai’s post on rising levels of disaffection and alienation among Israeli Arabs. It’s a striking decline over just one year.

Bibi and Barack go face-to-face at the White House this morning. That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

It was a Sunday showdown on Meet the Press as Democratic and Republican National Committee Chairmen Tim Kaine and Michael Steele crossed swords on Supreme Court nominees, Pelosi vs. the CIA, and exactly who the GOP is willing to admit into its party …

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Well, actually the public is evenly-divided on whether Pelosi was misled or not. And that’s from a Rasmussen poll. So, well …

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), after flirting with secession last month is now saying he’s a federal man forever. Actually, he’s saying, not very persuasively, that he was never in favor of secession at all.