Sadists R Us
by digby
A major divide has emerged among the leading Republican candidates for president over a central question of the 2008 campaign: Whether to follow the Bush administration's lead in pushing for aggressive treatment of detainees in fighting terrorism.
Tuesday's GOP debate in South Carolina showcased those differences. Sen. John McCain of Arizona called for limits on interrogation techniques, whereas former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and onetime Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney aligned themselves more closely with President Bush's approach.
Giuliani said interrogators should use "any method they can think of" and did not reject a moderator's suggestion that his answer encompassed the controversial practice of "water-boarding," which experts say simulates drowning. Romney proposed doubling the size of the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where terrorism suspects are held.
The issues arose in response to a hypothetical question about how each candidate would respond to the capture of suspects who may have knowledge of a coming attack on U.S. soil. But the exchange took place against a real-life backdrop, with Al Qaeda suspected of holding three U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
As US soldiers were being held prisoner, we have a group of sophomoric "24" and "300" fanboys telling the whole world that they just can't get enough of torture and would really like to torture even more --- to the cacophanous applause of a bunch of bloodthirsty neanderthals. More trash talk leadership. (And they have the nerve to complain that congressional debates about withdrawal are hurting the troops.)
After seeing the allegedly deeply religious South Carolina Republicans lustily cheer the cross-dressing, pro-choice New Yorker and the abortion flip-flopping, Taxachusetts pretty boy at that debate when they proclaimed their macho bonafides I am more convinced than ever that the Republican base is nothing more than hypocritical bullies whose dedication to blastocysts and fetuses is solely due to their primitive need to dominate women (or force other women to be dominated as they are.) Not that I didn't always suspect it. After all, they love that screeching harpy Ann Coulter and the drug addled Rush Limbaugh too, both of whom are malignant monsters whose idea of compassion is to provide a blindfold at the executions. (That is unless it is they who are in trouble with the law, of course...)
But as this primary unfolds, it's becoming more and more obvious that ninety percent of these hard core conservative "Christians" are completely full of shit. Let's not waste any more time debating issues like abortion or bending over backwards to respect their allegedly deeply held religious convictions. Those are merely rhetorical bludgeons with which to beat other people over the head. What they care about is brute power, period.
Giuliani apparently went even further than he had done in the debate in a conference call yesterday, so I'm expecting these guys to spend the next few months describing in ever more lurid detail which brutal forms of torture they would be willing to inflict, preferably with their bare hands. It seems to be working for them:
He elaborated on his debate remarks during a Wednesday conference call with bloggers. Giuliani said he would leave the distinction between enhanced interrogation techniques and torture to "the people who do it," according to a report on the National Review Online. He described water-boarding simply as "aggressive," the report said.
It's Giuliani time, baby! The more sadistic the better. This crowd loves it:
South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson said his state's primary voters wanted to support a candidate who would embrace the Bush administration's approach to fighting terrorism.
"In the Republican Party base here, George W. Bush is overwhelmingly loved," Dawson said.
The wags and the chatterers spent years saying the left wing of the Democratic party destroyed its party for a generation. I'll be very curious to see if they can see it actually happening to the other side in real time.
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