Reply #3: Why do we have to wait, for prominent Dems to speak up about this? [View All]

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

I agree completely with the sentiments in the blog post. But where is the evidence that the party will take advantage of the "opportunity of a lifetime"?

On the other hand, maybe pigs will fly, and the Democrats will finally get smart. Maybe Harry Reid 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.

I agree with every word of the above excerpt.