Republican Kabuki

Well, no surprise a compromise was reached between the Chimperor and his lackeys in the Senate.  Was there any doubt?  I believe this was all a setup.  Follow me below the fold...

Remember that Rove is the master of political Jiu Jitsu, running at his enemy's strength.  Well, torture is something Americans don't like to do (except for the psychopaths LGF and FR).  So what do the Repiglicans do?  Stage this theater which allows Bush to frame it as a CIA issue and claim that torturing innocent people is necessary to protect Amerika.  By doing this dance, the minions in the Senate allowed the Chimp to appear presidential, big daddy protecting us against the dark hordes, and in the end the prodigals return to the fall.

So what next?  Now they will force a vote before recess on this bill, and use it like a club in the hinterland, to portray Democrats as weak on terrorism because we don't support the CIA's "interrogation program".  Yes, deep down inside, we all want to hurt the dirty dark things, they are not people, and if you don't you are weak.  We can't let them bomb our cornfields in Nebraska or our cotton plantations in Alabama.  So the vote will occur and Democrats will do one of two things: vote against it and get clubbed by the psychopaths in November, or vote for it and spread their cheeks for the devil.

So what do Democrats do?  When faced with a double bind (damned if you do and damned if you don't), you have to break one of the constraints.  And the one to break is getting clubbed by the war pigs, it is time to club first, and club harder, starting now.