The recent controversy over President Obama’s Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor has truly brought out the anger, bitterness and fear that exists within the white male conservative wing of the Republican party. In their defense of the “oppressed” white male minority, however, they have missed the historical reality that for much to long the truly oppressed minorities of this country have been denied their seat at the table. Check out this Article on Supreme Court Diversity to see how things could have been different.

After listening to the former Vice Presidents Speech today I was reminded of the accepted definition of Terror. The object of terror is terror. If this is true then Dick Cheney is exhibit #1. 911 transformed this man into a simpering old man afraid of his own shadow. Obviously, 911 altered the way all Americans viewed the world, but that does not justify abandoning our core principles of justice and human rights or giving up the moral high ground of history. By doing that you justify every vile thing that the terrorists believe about this country. I don’t care how scared you are or how much “high value” information you think you might obtain by pushing people beyond the limits of human decency. Fear, in fact, is not a legal justification for purposefully hurting somebody day after day week after week.

On Politico today Michael Steel attempted to make the case for his party turning a corner on the national stage. The entire article can be found here. The main point, however, is his attempt to map out the Republicans future by capitolizing on democratic mistakes and misques by moving forward, voicing opposition and seizing the momentum.  To borrow a phrase from Ronald Reagan, “There you go again” Moving forward, voicing opposition and seizing the momentum is not a blueprint for a national party. The problem with the party right now is that for the majority of Americans, Republican means Bush, Iraq, corruption, racism, intolerance, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, Torture, and now, because of your multitude of tv appearances, Michael Steele. Nobody even knows who Reagan was anymore let alone his definition of conservatism. The result has been the incredible shrinking party. Until the Republicans get some real ideas that resonate with the middle of the road independents that Rush Limbaugh has such disdain for, and a messenger capable of delivering the message the way Reagan could, they have nowhere to go but down.

The recent announcement by the Obama administration on the reinstatement of military tribunals have been heavily criticized by the very people who supported him the most. They voted for him to fix all of the problems of the Bush administration and expected immediate and unequivocal results. This and the decision to not release the photos of detainee abuse have left them feeling betrayed. I think, however, that they should take a step back and not focus so on the individual issues and take a look at the big picture. Most of Americans who voted for Obama did so because they saw in him someone that they could trust to make the correct decisions in difficult situations. If the Bush years showed us anything, it was that the presidency is a hard job that should not be entrusted to a third class mind or a third class temperament. It is also not a job that can be entrusted to somebody that is a slave to ideology or a simplistic world view. We all wish that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan did not exist. We all wish that Guantanamo and detainees did not exist. So does Obama. But we just can’t wish these things away without consequences. The question we have to ask ourselves is do we trust him to find his way through the minefield and make the correct decisions. For now, I think we can.

The Bush administration’s defense of torture is nothing more then blatant attempt to sway the national jury pool into absolving them any guilt or blame. They are saying that we should look away and ignore the legality of these acts because the times were to dangerous and the information they attained were to valuable to not take extreme action. In other words don’t blame us, we had no choice. But, take a look at the article, The Bush Administration’s Torturous Logic and you will see that torture is always a choice. As the FBI interrogator testified to congress today said, if you don’t know how to interrogate properly it is much easier just to hit somebody. Success in committing the crime has never been a valid defense for the crime.