What it's come to

Josh Marshall looks at the current torture debate in Congress in this 09/15/06 post and tries to focus on the practical politics, setting aside for a moment the Constitutional and rule-of-law issues.

I first read these two paragraphs and started to feel outraged. Then I realized he's describing the reality of what we face today with our neo-segregationist, Christian-Right-ified, authoritarian Republican Party:

I don't pretend that it's a clear political shot to argue, in a highly polarized electorate, that there are certain rights we should afford to anyone in our custody, no matter how bad they may be.

If there's some division over a president who wants to sully our national honor by enshrining torture as national policy, I don't think there's much division over a would-be torturer-in-chief who's so feckless that he can't even get his bills through congress - and this while he's twiddling his thumbs as Iraq goes to hell.

The Cheney-Bush torture policy not only shows us how far today's Republican Party has gotten from supporting the rule of law and democratic institutions. It also shows us what sort of Christian morality the Christian Right stands for.

Thanks to that crew, we now have news like this: A Defining Moment for America: The president goes to Capitol Hill to lobby for torture Washington Post 09/15/06.

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