War and Torture

John McCain, a Vietnam war prisoner, argued Friday that his top rivals for the GOP nomination aren't qualified to deal with issues like torture — or to be president in wartime — because they never served in the military.

[...]

"There's a clear division between those who have a military background and experience in these issues and people like Giuliani, Romney and Thompson who don't — who chose to do other things when this nation was fighting its wars," McCain told reporters after touring a shipyard and taking questions from workers wearing hard hats and blue jeans.

  Yahoo

I wonder if nobody asked whether he might extrapolate to the current administration.

Frankly, there’s not necessarily a correlation between abilities necessary to be president and abilities necessary to be a soldier. What he should be promoting is his difference from those other three by virtue of his clear claim that waterboarding constitutes torture and is illegal. Giuliani thinks it “should not be used in every circumstance,” but that in “extraordinary circumstances, the president needs all options available,” which sounds to me like waterboarding would be only the beginning of his torture tactic arsenal.

And, speaking of torture, Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein are going to vote for Michael Gonzo v.2 Mukasey because they say he’s the best candidate they’re going to get offered to them. How do they know that? Diane Feinstein says Mukasey’s no Alberto Gonzales, but I’m guessing she didn’t think Alberto Gonzales was Alberto Gonzales when he was offered up, either. Boy those Democrats really shook things up when they took control of Congress, didn't they?

And who do you think said this…

Before the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee completely cave-in to Bush, at minimum they should demand that Judge Mukasey appoint a special prosecutor to investigate if war crimes have been committed. If Mukasey refuses he should be rejected. This, indeed, should be a pre-condition to anyone filling the post of Attorney General under Bush.

If the Democrats in the Senate refuse to demand any such requirement, it will be act that should send chills down the spine of every thinking American.

  TPM

That would be John Dean, former Nixon White House crook. I’m not sure how many thinking Americans there are left, but I’m pretty sure they’ve already had their spines thoroughly chilled by the acts of the Senate Democrats. This latest is only what's become expected of them, chilling as it is.

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress. --Mark Twain