In Senate, Dems Say "Jump," GOP Says "How High?"

It appears that I haven't made many friends on my side of the aisle of late by being open and candid about the depths of Senate Republican gutlessness. Not that making friends is my raison d'etre for blogging; and not, by the same token, that I derive any joy from pointing out how, having obtained unified and what should be functional right-wing dominance of the federal elective government branches, the GOP is now disintegrating into an "every man for himself" free-for-all that is supposed to happen after a comprehensive defeat, not an across-the-board triumph.

But I resolved eight and a half years ago to stop being a partisan cheerleader and to tell things like they are, not as I want them to be. Here is the latest installment of that resolution:

Failed presidential candidate Senator John Kerry is blaming the White House for the alleged abuse of terrorist suspects at U.S. detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay and Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.

"This Administration created the atmosphere and the capacity for this to happen," Kerry told the western Massachusetts newspaper The Republican on Thursday, during his first swing through his home state since losing the election last year.

The [bottom] Democrat said it was time for Congress to launch a formal probe into the prison abuse scandals.

"It should happen," Kerry said. "It's a very legitimate inquiry. It's about who we are as a country, and these are terrible abuses."

"[The abuse allegations] are not good for fighting a war on terror," the [bottom] Democrat added.

Kerry said the GOP was to blame for the fact that scandals at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib hadn't already been investigated by Congress.

"The reason is Republicans control the committees and they're protecting their own Administration, it's very simple," he complained.

Of course, this is sophistic nonsense designed for no purpose beyond demonizing the Bush Administration and sabotaging the GWOT. Which, among other things, illustrates that those who thought the DisLoyal Opposition might learn a lesson or two from their most recent drubbing were engaging in pyrotechnic self-delusion. Fish swim, birds fly, Kennedys drink, Clintons [bleep], and the extreme Left hates. They'll never stop trying to destroy Dubya and the majority he represents. They simply don't know anything else. The prudent course of action is to accept that axiom and plan and strategize accordingly.

So it comes as no surprise that "prudence" and Senate Republicans aren't within a country parsec of each other - again:

Prompted by Amnesty International's complaint that the U.S. terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is a "gulag," Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter plans to hold hearings this month to clarify the rights of terrorist suspects.

Specter's investigation will focus on the detention of enemy combatants at both Guantanamo and inside the United States, according to The Associated Press....

Specter has begun drafting a bill to establish procedures for accused terrorists, which could include the creation of a process where detainees could contest their incarcerations, the AP said.

Amnesty International applauded the Pennsylvania Republican for his decision to hold gulag hearings.

"Any kind of sunshine would be a good antiseptic for this situation," the group's advocacy director, Jumana Musa, told the AP.

I'm not sure what I can add that I haven't posted time and again in this space over the past few months. Courtesy of a cowed, "maverick" RINO eager to bathe himself in the plaudits of his enemies, Pat Leahy, Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Chucky Schumer and the rest are going to get a gift-wrapped platform from which to lay same major foundation work for the eventual impeachment of George Bush after (they clearly believe) they retake Congress in 2006. After Snarlin' Arlen gavels the hearings to order, he might just as well hand the gavel over to Leahy and leave for a few relaxing rounds of golf, his collaborationist work having been done, and done well. Heck, all the rest of the Judiciary Committee 'Pubbies might as well take the time off as well, since the minority contingent will never let them get a word in edgewise anyway.

What should be "formally probed" is Amnesty International, and Newsweek, and the New York Times, and the shadowy machinations of George Soros. One of the points of winning control of Congress is to use its oversight power to go after opposition groups, driving them onto the defensive and keeping them there. This is the mirror parallel of using majority control to advance your own proactive agenda. It is the continuation of political campaigning after power is attained, as the primary means of retaining that power once it is in hand.

But we don't see that on Capitol Hill from the current majority, do we? Instead we see an insatiable desire to be "liked" and praised by people who will never do anything but hate Republicans who won't knuckle under, and use with contempt Republicans that do.

It was bad enough that Senate GOPers aren't pushing our own agenda; it was worse when some of them started bargaining away their majority perogatives; now they're actively doing the minority's bidding for them.

Thank God it's the House of Representatives that decides whether or not to impeach. If the Constitution gave that function to the Senate, George Bush would be in some serious jeopardy.