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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Spectering Lessons From A Master

Spectering Lessons From A Master

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True to form, when the time comes to back words up with deeds Arlen Specter has never met a matter of principle on which he won’t cave. In fact I can’t imagine why anybody would take his “concern” over Mukasey at face value. Specter has folded on the torture issue several times already, so why should this time turn out any different? If you want principles, forget fake mavericks like Specter, Graham and Warner and instead look to the vanishingly small cadre of unrepentant pains in the ass like Chuck Hagel. The difference between play-acting and following through couldn’t be more obvious.

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18Comments

  1. 1.

    Zifnab

    If he’s going to cave this often on this many issues, he might as well just change his party affiliation already and be done with it.

  2. 2.

    Bruce Moomaw

    Yep, and look what kind of a reward he got for it — even before his retirement, he was trailing State Att. Gen. Bruning in the Nebraska GOP primary polls by a landslide. And Specter, of course, came within a hair of losing renomination to a hard-line rightist last time DESPITE his enthusiastic primary support by the Bush Administration. Both of the two lonesome GOP Congressmen who are seriously bucking the White House on Iraq (Gilchrest in Maryland and Jones in N. Carolina) are facing very serious primary challenges.

    The GOP electorate, at the moment, has decided to get all its wagons into a circle (right now it’s radically split in opinion polls on various issues not only from the Democrats, but from the country’s Independents). This may be due to the fact that the current GOP coalition is so centered around “faith-based” (read, self-maddened) Christian-Right voters; but whatever the reason, you can forget about any meaningful dissent for now among GOP politicians — if they DO try it, they’ll lose. (Although I’d love to see one or two of them pull a Lieberman and run as independents after losing their party’s primary.)

  5. 5.

    Tsulagi

    he (Specter) would back Mr. Mukasey because he has said that if Congress were to pass a law banning waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning, “the president would have absolutely no legal authority to ignore such a law.”

    Gee, and that would be such a bad thing.

    And it’s not “sensation” of drowning, it’s drowning. Drowning stopped short of death. If done properly. That way you can do it over again and again. Well, unless you have an oops and/or the bastard goes all asymmetric warfare on you by dying.

    He’s strong, ethical, honest beyond any question.”

    Yeah, Specter, I can see how YOU would come to that conclusion after watching Mukasey’s determined waffling/spectering on torture.

    Vote Republican! When up is just not down enough for you.

  7. 7.

    The Truffle

    Really, both parties in Congress have mastered the art of caving. Whether it’s faux mavericks like Specter and Warner or folks like DiFi, their attitude is “Balance? What balance?”

    Specter should just retire in 2010. No reason for him to stay.

  8. 8.

    Dennis-SGMM

    …if Congress were to pass a law banning waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning, “the president would have absolutely no legal authority to ignore such a law.”

    My ass. Someone would write a memo redefining the procedure as Aquatically Enhanced Interrogation. Bush would then state that any information about whether or not we use Aquatically Enhanced Interrogation or even defining what it is would aid the terrorists. Lather, rinse, repeat.

  11. 11.

    LITBMueller

    …if Congress were to pass a law banning waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning, “the president would have absolutely no legal authority to ignore such a law.”

    It ain’t a LAW unless Bush signs it. It’s just a BILL. And he can ignore a Resolution all he wants.

    Apparently, Specter never saw School House Rock.

  12. 12.

    Cinderella Ferret

    … if Congress were to pass a law banning waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning …

    Uh, yes. As Malcolm Nance, and others have pointed out, waterboarding DOES create the sensation of drowning. Because it is controlled drowning which forces the individual into a near death state as their lungs fill with water. Those experiencing the “water cure”, as it were, eventually pass out or drown if the water is not expelled from the lungs. The sensation is real because they are drowning. Res ipsa loquitor, eh?

  13. 13.

    Jake

    My ass. Someone would write a memo redefining the procedure as Aquatically Enhanced Interrogation.

    It’s not torture, it’s hydro-therapy.

    But it’s strange that we’ve gone from not mentioning water and boards in the same paragraph because the terrorists would win to chat about it all you want.

  14. 14.

    Zifnab

    …if Congress were to pass a law banning waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning, “the president would have absolutely no legal authority to ignore such a law.”

    Gee, golly Willikers Mr Specter, aren’t we a member of a little treaty called the Geneva Convention? And doesn’t this treaty specifically forbid the torture? Hey, hasn’t the US prosecuted waterboarding as a war crime? Why goodness gracious. Yes we have!

    In 1947, the United States prosecuted a Japanese military officer, Yukio Asano, for carrying out a form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian during World War II. Yukio Asano received a sentence of 15 years of hard labor. The charges of Violation of the Laws and Customs of War against Asano also included “beating using hands, fists, club; kicking; burning using cigarettes; strapping on a stretcher head downward.”

    Wouldn’t that imply that waterboarding is already illegal and that any further legislation on the matter is entirely superfluous? Of course not. That would be silly.

  15. 15.

    jcricket

    It’s not torture, it’s hydro-therapy.

    Yep, all part of the full-day spa package at Club Gitmo. I say someone start a fund drive to send Rush there for a month or two, see if it cures his OxyContin habit.

  16. 16.

    Delia

    …if Congress were to pass a law banning waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning, “the president would have absolutely no legal authority to ignore such a law.”

    Gee, golly Willikers Mr Specter, aren’t we a member of a little treaty called the Geneva Convention? And doesn’t this treaty specifically forbid the torture? Hey, hasn’t the US prosecuted waterboarding as a war crime? Why goodness gracious. Yes we have!

    In 1947, the United States prosecuted a Japanese military officer, Yukio Asano, for carrying out a form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian during World War II. Yukio Asano received a sentence of 15 years of hard labor. The charges of Violation of the Laws and Customs of War against Asano also included “beating using hands, fists, club; kicking; burning using cigarettes; strapping on a stretcher head downward.”

    Wouldn’t that imply that waterboarding is already illegal and that any further legislation on the matter is entirely superfluous? Of course not. That would be silly.

    Well, in a sane world, maybe, but that’s not where we live anymore, is it? The Geneva Conventions have been proclaimed quaint, and I imagine if Congress did manage to get around to passing a law officially proclaiming waterboarding illegal, and if by some miraculous chance, it was by a large enough majority in both House and Senate to override the inevitable Bush veto, then King Georgie would just issue one of his magic signing statements along with the bill and make it all go away.

  17. 17.

    TenguPhule

    If some lightbulb in the media would simply rephrase the question as “Do you believe waterboarding is acceptable for American soldiers being interrogated by foreign powers?” a lot of these gutless Senators would be running the other way.

    Alas, the bulbs have all burned out.

  18. 18.

    ConservativelyLiberal

    I heard that Coleman was testing a tent with a new treatment called ‘Spectering’. This process allows the tent to fold perfectly when putting it away, but problems developed when the tent would fold up whenever it was needed.

    Sadly, they had to stop testing as it was reliably unreliable.

    ;)

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