From::  The Daily Brew

Subject:  I'm the torturer

The Daily Brew
September 25, 2006
Chance of a Lifetime

I realize that the entire leftwing blogosphere is apoplectic because
Democrats failed to even participate in the deal cut last Thursday
allowing Bush to torture people.  I don't see why.  I am probably too
optimistic, but I think Rove has finally outsmarted himself.

For years Democrats (including myself) have bitched and moaned that GOP
talking points fit neatly onto bumper stickers, while it takes a thirty
page white paper with 200 footnotes to explain the Democratic
alternative.  For once, the shoe is on the other foot. The GOP has
given us the opportunity to make the Republicans the Torture Party.  We
ought to run with it.

Every time Bush has squarely addressed the issue, he has denied that
"we" torture people.  That tells me two things.  First, it tells me that
Bush is lying.  I saw the pictures from Abu Gharib.  Bush is definitely in
the torture business.  Second, and almost as important, it tells me that
the word "torture" doesn't poll well for Rove.  So if you keep calling
Bush a torturer, he will have to keep denying it.  So lets do it.

For Anne Coulter and Michelle Malkin, the fact that Bush is morphing
into Josef Mengele is a plus, but we are not getting the pro-torture
votes anyway.  For all the normal folks whose sense of morality forces
Bush to deny he tortures people, this debate is a gift from God.

Is there a better sound bite than "I oppose torture"?  Is there an easier
thing to say than "I am not going to vote for this bill. Torture is immoral.
Torturing people who haven't even been charged with a crime endangers
both our troops and the American public.  If we make it US policy to
torture people who have done nothing wrong, based on the mere suspicion
that they might know something useful, is there any doubt that foreign
governments will likewise subject our troops and US citizens traveling
abroad to the same treatment"?

Sure, we all know that once we start, the right wing noise machine will
spring into action.  But for once, we've got them where we want them.
Out talking points are simple. Theirs are not.
Just by having the debate, we win it.

The actual bill is a complicated mess. Unless you are an endowed chair
at the Yale law school, good luck figuring out what it means.  So when
we say "Torture is wrong," they have to say "The bill does not authorize
torture.  Under paragraph 3(g)(4) subsection iii, the proposed legislation
clearly provides that.."  Yada, yada, yada.  Get the idea?

Little Suzy Swingvoter and her husband Joe the Undecided Working Guy
aren't going to listen to the whole debate, and they damn sure aren't going
to read the bill.  Their impressions are going to be formed on the basis of
sound bites, and in this debate, we have the better sound bites. We can
make the GOP the Torture Party. All we have to do is make sure we
don't give them any bi-partisan cover, and repeatedly force them to
deny that they are torturing people.  We will come out miles ahead.

If the Rove tries to debate this bill by saying that Democrats are soft
on terrorism, then the GOP implicitly concedes that the bill authorizes
torture, and we win; the GOP is the Torture Party.  The tougher they
act, the more they cement the idea that they are torturing people.  On
the other hand, if they try to make convoluted arguments about how much
you have to harm people before it is actually considered torture, then
they are dancing on the head of a pin with the devil, and the GOP is
the Party of Torture with Law Degrees. The more they deny the bill
authorizes torture, the more they undercut their own message that
Democrats are soft on terrorism.  We win both ways.

All Democrats have to do is keep making simple statements over and
over.  "Torture is wrong." "Torture is Un-American."  What is the GOP
going to do?  Say torture is a family value?  All Democrats need to do
is trust that the American people will reject torture.

Maybe Digby is right.  Maybe the Democrats have been "punked."
Maybe a mere six weeks from the fall election, Democrats will again take
the seemingly safe route, meekly sit back, say nothing, and allow the
compromise to become law.  McCain will get to play the Republican rebel
maverick, who did the moral thing and looked out for the troops.  Bush will
get to play the Republican statesman and leader, who showed that he is
committed to protecting Americans but that he is willing to listen and
compromise, and Democrats will look like ciphers who don't have the
stones to even say a word when the most important moral issue confronting
the government is being debated.

On the other hand, maybe pigs will fly, and the Democrats will finally get smart.
Maybe Harry Ried and Nancy Pelosi will realize that when it comes to torture,
good policy, good morals, and good politics all converge.  Maybe Democrats
will stand up for the idea that torture is wrong, and hang this atrocity around
the necks of the entire Republican party like a burning tire.

Of course, if they don't, then I don't really care what happens.  For me,
we reach the Rubicon this week.  Any political party that won't stand up
and be counted against torture is not a party that I want to be associated with,
regardless of how evil the alternative.  I think opposing torture is a political winner.
But even if I am wrong, and standing up against torture will cost the Democrats
the majority, then SO BE IT, they should do it anyway.

Anyone in Congress who isn't willing to risk their seat to oppose torture I don't
want in power regardless of what party they are in.  If a Democrat doesn't have
the courage to do the right thing on an issue this basic and fundamental, then they
are a coward who is unworthy of their seat.  We should make any Democrat who
gives the GOP bipartisan cover for this abomination the "Joe Lieberman" of every
future election they enter.

If they aren't smart enough to see that doing the right thing here is a long term
political winner for the party, even if they are worried it might cost them their job
in the short run, then they are more committed to their own power than our principles,
and to hell with them.

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