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Spineless DemocratsThursday, Dec. 20, 2007 12:22 AMSenator Harry Reid thinks the only reason people are in a froth about the FISA legislation (now with Telecom Amnesty and no trans-fats!) is that it's primary season. In fact, he thinks Democrats will be able to reach a compromise once the early primaries are wrapped up, and we have a better idea of who the Democratic candidate might be. In other words, 'maybe Chris Dodd will lose and go away.' Amid the debate on cloture called to avoid Dodd's filibuster was a comment by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama): The civil libertarians among us would rather defend the Constitution than protect our nation's security. Um, Senator? It's your job to defend the Constitution. You swore an oath to do so when you took office. And surely you're not arguing that it is impossible to protect our nation's security without trampling the Constitution? If "America does not torture," then we need to ask why, exactly, the New York Times is reporting that four White House heavyweights took part in discussions with the CIA on whether to destroy interrogation tapes or not. The four were David Addington, then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Harriet Miers, and John Bellinger from the National Security Council. Somehow, I don't think 'no, we need to keep the tapes' were the words coming out of these people's mouths. We're talking about an administration that has already violated the law regarding presidential record-keeping, in addition to being mealy-mouthed about torture. Speaking of torture, last week, a CIA agent named John Kiriakou, came forward with the admission that we tortured Abu Zubaydah, but that's okay, because we got some really solid information from it. Though Kiriakou couldn't remember any attacks that the information helped prevent, or what that information was, exactly, but, hey! Torture works! It's all good! Except now, the FBI is saying that Abu Zubaydah was a bit player, and the only useful information came from him before the CIA decided to waterboard him. Conservative Jonah Goldberg has a new book out on fascism, which includes the following: "In Germany, fascism appeared as genocidal racist nationalism. In America, it took a 'friendlier,' more liberal form. The modern heirs of this 'friendly fascist' tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood. The quintessential liberal fascist isn't an SS stormtrooper; it is a female grade-school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.." Geez, Jonah, are you sure you didn't leave anybody out? And it's funny that the villains are people you basically disagree with. But, if school teachers are the purveyors of modern fascism, are we to believe that you alone saw the light and escaped from the evil brainwashing that is primary education? That you flunked math and other basic subjects to stand firm against this evil lurking in our midst? Right.
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