There has been a lot of handwringing among us over the piece of theater put on by the Rethugs earlier today. I agree that the "revolt" was staged, with the final act of "compromise" meant to portray Dems as weak and irrelevant. Yet, there were unexpected problems in the Rethug drama. Powell was not supposed to get involved the way he did. The international condemnation of US torture policies was greater than expected and was actually received with credibility among the MSM. Finally, and most importantly, Dems didn't take the bait as planned and the politics became more about internal strife among Rethugs and McCain's prospects in '08 rather than a partisan showdown.
Of course, you'll have Tom Curry from MSNBC and other members from the MSM shrill for the Rethugs and explain just how badly Dems lost in this process. And yes, Digby and a few others among us will lament Reid's and Pelosi's perceived failure to "get involved". It's easy to disagree with a hack like Curry. It's more difficult to go up against Digby and Atrios, but I must on this one.
Reid played this one right. The worst thing that could have happened is if Dems were drug into a 3-week long saga of partisan battle to play the role of the "weak-on-terror" dupe. That would have been a disastrous dynamic for Dems and difficult to escape just one month before the elections. Instead, Reid sat back, refused to take the bait and watched this thing grow as a cancer among Rethugs and eventually metastasize to the point that it jeopardized the political standing of the Rethug's leading presidential candidate (McCain could have lost the entire conservative base on this, and he may very well have suffered irreparable damage among many of the righties). This thing imploded on the Rethugs.
Reid knew Dems need not partake in the contrived process of arriving at a "compromise". McCain would have abandoned the Dems in any regard and Dems would have been left with the baggage of "defending the terrorist". Reid knew this fight was simple because the issue is simple - the American people do not want to sink to the level of the terrorists and become a country of torturers. It's that simple and sometimes simple notions work well in politics.
To the extent that the "compromise" reflects this simple notion, Reid and the rest of the Dems can mock the Rethugs for having taken so long to figure this out. Yes, just another sign of how extreme and how extremely incompetent the Rethugs have become. If the "compromise" betrays this simple notion, Dems can steal this issue away from the Rethugs. Yes, just another sign of how extreme and how extremely incompetent the Rethugs have become.
Rove & Co. took a chance on this one and they got burned. McCain will be licking his wounds for months to come. Reid stole this one as best I can tell.