Torture and Spying on Americans: A Real Republican Opportunity

I grew up in a family of Democrats in a very Republican neighborhood.  For all of my life with my parents, I remember my mother going to the polls every election to be an election judge because there were only two families in our precinct who were democrats.

In thinking about politics today, what seems most significant in my memories from that era is that our Republican neighbors were people pretty much like us.  We shared very similar ideals, although we disagreed somewhat on the ways to achieve them.  Our relationships with our neighbors were downright friendly.  The most notable Republican leaders in Illinois were for the most part intelligent, honorable, highly respected people - people like Ev Dirksen* and Chuck Percy and Bill Stratton.  Everybody liked Ike, and nobody liked Nixon.

I like to think that those top Republican leaders of that time would have been absolutely horrified if they had learned that the American government had been conducting a clandestine torture program and regularly and widely reading the mail of American citizens without warrants.  And had the Administration then dilly-dallied around about a thorough investigation of the torture and spying the people who planned and authorized it, there are a number of them who would have risen in Congress and not sat back down until a thorough investigation was begun.

Today, a friend who has contacts in some key congressional offices on both sides of the aisle reports that Obama's recent endorsement of the Nuremberg Defense for the people who carried out the torture sparked a nearly unprecedented amount of constituent support for the appointment of an independent special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute whenever appropriate.

One of the Republican staffers reportedly told our friend that her boss especially had been impressed by the "quality" of the communications -- meaning that he was hearing from a lot of old-line conservatives whom he considered the soul of his constituency.  

I don't know if there's a Republican of that old principled party left in American Politics, but if there is, the Obama Administration's mishandling of the whole war crimes issue has presented them with a wonderful opportunity to stand up and demand a special prosecutor, and thus begin the process of returning their party to some level of credibility.

While this whole pile of post-Bush detritus is loaded with political implications, the issue at hand is one of criminality, not politics, and the first principled Republican to stand up and demand an investigation wins.  (and I think, wins big)


*Yes, I know Ev Dirksen was a horrible hawk on Vietnam.  That makes him wrong, not dishonorable.  And yes, I'm aware that the CIA and State Department were committing horrible attrocities in Central- and South America on our behalf during that same time I'm so nostalgic for.  Different times.