(no subject)

[mattlistener]

This needs to be heard far and wide:

Garrison Keillor on the new "enemy combatant" legislation just passed by the senate.

None of the men and women who voted for this bill has any right to speak in public about the rule of law anymore, or to take a high moral view of the Third Reich, or to wax poetic about the American Idea. Mark their names. Any institution of higher learning that grants honorary degrees to these people forfeits its honor.

Alexander, Allard, Allen, Bennett, Bond, Brownback, Bunning, Burns, Burr, Carper, Chambliss, Coburn, Cochran, Coleman, Collins, Cornyn, Craig, Crapo, DeMint, DeWine, Dole, Domenici, Ensign, Enzi, Frist, Graham, Grassley, Gregg, Hagel, Hatch, Hutchison, Inhofe, Isakson, Johnson, Kyl, Landrieu, Lautenberg, Lieberman, Lott, Lugar, Martinez, McCain, McConnell, Menendez, Murkowski, Nelson of Florida, Nelson of Nebraska, Pryor, Roberts, Rockefeller, Salazar, Santorum, Sessions, Shelby, Smith, Specter, Stabenow, Stevens, Sununu, Talent, Thomas, Thune, Vitter, Voinovich, Warner.

Ex-POW McCain signed this bill. I had been thinking he'd at least be a tolerable president if we got stuck with another Republican in 2008. Various friends of mine have been been aghast that I cared to say some good things about him -- sounds like they were on to something.

Comments

[randysmith]

Yeah, I went through the same transition you did around McCain. I thought he could be trusted on this one. (I occasionally think that that means I should give the bill a careful reading myself--I really did think he had personal reasons not to compromise--but wow it sounds bad from all the coverage I'm seeing).

[beowabbit]

I think McCain just made a cold political calculation and decided (1) that he wasn’t going to succeed in holding the line on torture, (2) that denying the pro-torture, anti-habeas people in his party political cover was going to make him enemies that would cost him politically, (3) that, perhaps, breaking ranks would hurt the chances for continued Republican control of Congress in November, and (4) that political expediency mattered more to him than his principles. Doesn’t mean his vote wasn’t wrong and shameful, just means it wasn’t surprising. (Clinton, a pretty good statesman but an even better politician, also sometimes sacrificed his principles for political expediency. I’m not saying McCain can hold a candle to Clinton, but they’re both politicians, not moral leaders. Those two roles, alas, rarely go together these days.)

[ceo]

McCain has also been being all kissy-face with the Religious Right, having called them out as a threat to American values during the 2000 primary. It's almost as disgraceful a performance as our own governor's.

I used to have some respect for him too, but he's turned out to be a calculating opportunist politician like the rest of them. I wonder what dumb-ass consultant advised Kerry to sound him out as a potential running mate in '04.