June 20, 2005
Do Anything To Take Us Out Of This Blue
I'll say one thing for Dick Durbin - at least he didn't claim he was just trying to make joke. But that's the only positive thing I can say about his absurd and damaging claim that:
If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.
I can only shake my head at such breathtaking ignorance, and his subsequent attempt to shift the blame from himself, where it squarely belongs, to the media and right wingers is pathetic. There are two problems with his remarks: He makes this inflammatory, bound to be used by our enemies, wrong statement; and by doing so he destroys the discussion over the point I hope he was trying to make. Hugh Hewitt takes a long, full look at the Senator's remarks and concludes, well, that would be telling, wouldn't it.
UPDATE:
Senator Durbin has apologized for his remarks. I thought his apology insincere (he waited until Mayor Daley of Chicago let him have it) and the crying was over the top, but apology made, and in the words of Smash: Apology accepted. Show's over, folks. Move along.
