The GOP's Torture Pivot

[Joanne98]

Posted by Adam Blickstein

It's disconcertingly risible the same political party that staked its attempt to win the presidency based solely on a candidate whose central narrative was predicated on being a war hero and former POW who endured years of unimaginable torture now exalts the defense of torture as a central platform and talking point. The fact that in the course of 6 months, Republicans can so quickly pivot from politicizing the tortured past of a candidate's biography in order to retain power to politically defending the use of torture in order protect their failed legacy demonstrates that the GOP is really a party standing on its heels at the edge of the abyss, not merely one just getting caught flat on their feet. Remember what they were saying 8 months ago at the GOP convention about John McCain's time as a POW?:

Fred Thompson: The guards cracked ribs, broke teeth off at the gums. They cinched a rope around his arms and painfully drew his shoulders back....Over four days, every two to three hours, the beatings resumed. During one especially fierce beating, he fell, again breaking his arm...When his captors wanted the names of other pilots in his squadron, John gave them the names of the offensive line of the Green Bay Packers.

Rudy Giuliani: He was tortured in a POW camp, but he refused his captors' offers of early release. Because this is a man who believes in serving a cause greater than self-interest. He came home a national hero.

Sarah Palin: As the story is told, "When McCain shuffled back from torturous interrogations, he would turn toward Moe's door and flash a grin and thumbs up" - as if to say, "We're going to pull through this." My fellow Americans, that is the kind of man America needs to see us through these next four years.

John McCain: A lot of prisoners had it worse than I did. I'd been mistreated before, but not as badly as others. I always liked to strut a little after I'd been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it. But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before. For a long time. And they broke me.

And now, well, torture works! One of the reasons America used to follow the Geneva Conventions and did not torture was to prevent our own soldiers from facing the same tragic experience John McCain had in Vietnam. But George W. Bush and Dick Cheney cast those protections aside, essentially exposed our own soldiers to the possibility of torture, and for what? Probably to learn the names of the offensive line for the Green Bay Packers.

April 23, 2009 at 03:25 PM

[RT Atlanta]

1. Well said!

Nice perspective too on how the Party of "NO" will essentially say anything to retain their tenuous grasp on any form of power.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. Good point. k+r, n/t

[KansDem]

3. So what names did Bush/Cheney obtain at GitMo and Abu Ghraib?

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