The Shame of the Democratic Party

John Cole et al reveal that some key Democrats have neither shame, nor principle. Despite being briefed in 2002 on some of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" being used on terrorist detainees, none of them had any objections to make at the time...but have gleefully used the torture issue as a bludgeon against the Bush administration. One of those briefed includes Nancy Pelosi, who in the run-up to the mid-terms last year said this regarding the torture bill then winding its way through Congress:

Even if you want to forget about a sense of decency and just say in terms of reciprocity: We don’t want this to happen to our people so were not doing it to anybody else. Separate and apart from the fact that there are international standards for this, and we have a constitution that we want to honor.

And on top of this, and this is the most important part, in terms of having justice be done for 9/11. It’s five years later they have no convictions. They won’t have any convictions that will be upheld by the Supreme Court unless they follow certain principles. And so not one person directly responsible for 9/11 has been convicted and/or punished. Because they have this sense that they can operate outside the law outside of any regime or convention that relates to human dignity.

Where did they get this sense from? Oh...members of Congress who gave them every impression that they either wouldn't make a big fuss about it, or they'd pass bills to legalize it. While at the same time using the torture issue for political grand-standing, of course.

There's one thing you have to hand the Republicans, and that's that they at least have the balls to stand by their exceedingly unpopular positions. Democrats, on the other hand, seem incapable of taking a firm stance on issues even when they're supported by a majority of the American people. So we get the worst of both worlds: we have Democrats who firmly believe in torture but are too weasily to say so, or we have Democrats who are firmly against torture but are too weasily to say so.

Remind me again what we voted for in 2006?

By the way, right-wing bloggers are now busy roasting Pelosi for her duplicity. I say let them, as finally the right and the left have something in common...loathing of the Democratic leadership.