For one Congressman, at least, torture doesn't seem like an issue he really wants to engage in. In fact, when the candidate I work for (Bob Johnson ...
DrBob around here) forcefully challenged John McHugh on torture using the language of morality, well, there's no other way to put it: John McHugh freaked out.
Details below the fold (as well as a bonus: a fun web-poll to freep to get out your frustrations):
We'll get to the fun at the bottom ... it's a local web-poll, and if you've never seen what the mighty dKos can do to a local web-poll ... it's a sight to behold. But first, let me detail what happened when we confronted an incumbent GOP Congressman using explicitly moral terms ... Here's the rundown:
John McHugh is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and he supported the original Bush Administration bill. And Bob called him on it, first detailing Bob's strong opposition to torture and then saying:
My opponent this fall, incumbent Republican John McHugh, firmly supports the Bush Administration's right to torture. Perhaps because he never served in the military, he doesn't understand how opposing torture protects our own troops. Perhaps because he hasn't put in the work to study the issue, he doesn't know that torture doesn't work and produces unreliable information. And perhaps because he has been in Washington so long, he has lost touch with the basic morality of what it means to be an American.
I can't say why he takes the position he does. But I do know this: he is profoundly, seriously, and morally wrong.
When I read that, I suspected that would get a response, but I expected the BS "Dr. Bob Johnson wants to take away the tools blah, blah" ... but we got something else. John McHugh wanted no part of being labeled that way, and he just freaked.
The appalling statement by Dr. Robert Johnson that I support torture and have 'lost touch with the basic morality of what it means to be an American,' is an outright lie. [...]
What Dr. Johnson asserts is from another page out of the Democrat playbook - throwing lies out there and seeing if they'll stick. I have never voted to authorize the use of torture or any enhanced interrogation techniques. [...]
I have been with our troops on the ground in every theater of conflict in which our military forces have been engaged since 1995 - from Haiti and Kosovo and Bosnia to Afghanistan and Iraq - and understand both the great dangers they face, and the sacrifices they make on behalf of all Americans.--LINK
"Been with our troops on the ground"? Please. On fact-finding trips? Is there a special category of veteran for that? But I'll let that go. For now.
What amazes me is both the incredibly angry tone of the release and the almost amazing assertion "I have never voted to authorize the use of torture or any enhanced interrogation techniques." WTF?!?!? He's running away from that as fast as he can.
But how could anyone with even a passing knowledge of what he voted for say such a thing? I was flabbergasted ... this is supposed to be the big cudgel to hammer Democrats. And he's running like a little girl child. And just because Bob hammered him, rightly, on the fact that this is outside of American values.
So, of course, we send out a response, showing how crazy that assertion is (kinda ironic he accuses Bob of "lying" when you consider what he followed that with), with a beginning and ending like this:
I'm surprised and disappointed in both the tone and the content of incumbent Congressman John McHugh's vitriolic attack on me. His vituperative tone and misleading rhetoric do him no honor. He descends to the basest personal attacks, while ignoring the central issues at hand by pretending the bills he voted for do not condone any "enhanced interrogation" techniques or redefine the Geneva Conventions in dangerous ways. [...]
But instead of taking responsibility for this vote, instead of standing up and having an honest debate, he chose to hurl invective and veiled innuendo against me. I regret that he has chosen that path. John McHugh voted to give away some of our most cherished rights as citizens and human beings, and, rather than defend that, he misdirects, misleads, and misinforms.
We deserve more.
So there ya go. Bob took it to him, called him on the basic immorality of what's going on, and he freaked out ... all we had to do at that point was pick up the pieces.
Moral to the story: don't be afraid of this issue. In Bob's case, he made a stand for what he thought was right, and John McHugh was left blustering and spluttering. And now he's already run away from "any enhanced interrogation techniques," so it's not like he can later accuse Bob of blocking "tools" he said don't exist.
Oh, I almost forgot the fun part ... we did this once before, and it's a hoot. There's a local web-site in the most conservative part of the district, which always skews very conservative in their web polls. And they have a poll for preference in the NY-23 race. When we here at the mighty Orange Mothership freeped one of their polls earlier, we got it up to 82% on our side. And it was big, big fun. So ... let's do it again. This site carried the whole torture exchange earlier, so let's do a little to say "no" to torture. Go here, and vote for Bob ... at the very least, it'll annoy John McHugh.
{I should mention the details of the race ... I work for Bob Johnson, who's running in NY-23 against John McHugh. As always, any contributions you'd like to make to support a Fighting Democrat ... they're very appreciated!}
update 11:42 EST: BWAHAHAHA! Bob's up to 77% in that web poll already! How high can we get it? I bet over 90% ...
update 11:56 EST: ... by noon. I meant over 90% by noon. How high can we go?
update 1:10 EST: HA! 97% ... is it possible to get the machine to round off to 100? I doubt it ...