From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Will the outgoing administration be called to account by the new one?

Hello again, I'm Warren Olney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most. The Bush administration is getting reviews and voicing its own assessments

of the past eight years. An unpublished official history of the Iraq Reconstruction says it was

crippled before it began and bungled in execution. John McCain and other Republicans agree

that waterboarding and other so-called abuse was approved at the highest levels. Now Vice President Cheney says that's true. Should he and others be praised for protecting the country or investigated for possible crimes? On reporter's notebook later on, does the Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate still matter?

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation

and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Hello again, Mormon-Aulney, back with To the Point.

Last week, a unanimous bipartisan Senate report accused High Bush administration officials of approving abusive interrogations.

Now, Vice President Cheney confirms that he was on board.

Will Barack Obama investigate or leave the recent past to future historians?

On reporter's notebook, the interest rate falls

toward zero, but other actions by the Federal Reserve could be much more important. We'll

learn about that. First, this news update to Barack Obama's cabinet continues to take shape well before

he's sworn into office. Today, he appointed as Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan, head of public schools in Chicago since 2001.

Obama was asked if he agrees with Duncan that paying kids for performance ought to be tried.

If pay for performance works and we can work with teachers so they don't feel like it's being imposed on them,

but instead they've got an option for

...