Attaturk, Digby and Jane....I'm in good company

Okay...so we all knew that the "revolt" by McCain, Warner and Graham was just a kubuki dance. We knew, for instance, that "Huckleberry Graham" (thanks to Digby for the nickname) has played this game before. He pretends to buck Bush and his administration, makes a big show of "standing on principle" and then uses a thin compromise or "great reflection" to cave in to the demands of the administration. He did it again, only this time, he was aided and abetted by Warner and John McCain. They struck a deal, a "compromise" with the administration that lets Bush decide exactly what toruture is...in essence, they have legitimized Abu Gahib and the secret prisions in Europe.

It's outrageous all right but here's the worst part. Harry Reid ...OUR SENATE LEADER, HARRY REID, has complimented the three Republicans.

Here's a small sampling of the outrage from the land of Right Blogistan. First, Champillion, in Rising Hegemon

The MSM has for days now been spewing nonsense about the great compromise reached between the Cheney administration and three principled senators who had the courage to stand-up to the White House. No writer has said it better than Digby (Attaturk links below), who probably says exactly what most of us are thinking: once we begin debating just how much torture is acceptable, the debate is already over and lost. Here they talk as if compromise is always a good end, kind of like Joe Lieberman uses the word "bipartisan". There are times when the act of compromise is not a good outcome, when looking for middle ground is not a desirable end. Generally that is when we are talking about accepting a diminution in the principles and ideals that separate our society from those we could never imagine we could become.

And then, there's Digby:

People and societies don't just wake up one morning to find they no longer recognize themselves. It's a process. And we are in the process in this country of "defining deviancy down" in ways I never thought possible. We are legitimizing torture and indefinite detention --- saying that we will only do this to the people who really deserve it. One cannot help but wonder what "really deserves it" will mean in the years to come as we fight our endless war against terror. Sure, right now it's just a bunch of foreigners and I guess we don't feel foreigners are entitled to basic human rights. They must not be human --- or at least not as human as "we" are.

When you think about it, who knows who "we" are either? Right wingers make millions of dollars writing books about how liberals are godless, death-loving, traitors within. Many people who read those books probably believe these liberals are only one step away from being sub-human too ---- they are, after all, godless traitors.

And finally, Jane Hamser at Firedoglake:


We are now officially the country of torture. The image above of the hooded prisoner is the one that gets used the most not because it is iconic (although it is), but because the others are so horrific people instinctively turn away and don’t want to face the conversation any more. The fact that Levin and Reid would applaud this as "standing up to the administration" is absolutely appalling. Totally aside from the moral bankruptcy and the political naivite they showed in getting punk’d by GOP kabuki, it is anything but an efficacious November strategy.

You should really check out the links. They're quite good and I wish I could add something as profound, or, maybe inspiring or motivating to the conversation. I guess I'll just have to be content with being disgusted. The only consolation is that I' m in very good company.

E