Like so many others here, I am absolutely appalled at my country's descent into madness and the enshrinement of crimes against humanity as our official policy. But I am almost as appalled by the incredible shallowness of the progressive blogosphere's reaction to the passage of the torture bill.

In a certain way, the reaction is pretty typical.  On dKos and elsewhere throughout the "progressive" blogosphere, some of the more shrill minions poured out dozens of comments and diaries explaining why everyone should be very, very angry about Democratic complacency in the face of this. They were opposed by "pragmatists," for whom it's never ok to be angry at the blessed Democratic Party. After a few rounds of this, the magic of the twenty-four-hour news cycle appeared (Foley was found with a live boy!), and everone began to move on.

This is what happened when the Democrats gave Bush his Iraq War authorization in 2002. It's what happened when Democrats refused to filibuster two Supreme Court nominees who think we live in an absolute monarchy.  It's what happened when Democrats voted for bankruptcy "reform," and when they confirmed appointee after appointee who wrote torture memos, supervised illegal wiretap programs, and the like.  Should we be angry or not? That was really the extent of the debate.

Blogging about the DC Dems relationship to the Connecticut Senatorial primary fight, Jane Hamsher over at Firedoglake recalls an exchange she had at yKos with Senate Minority Leader Reid:

I told him we weren't unsympathetic to his situation -- we weren't the Club for Growth going after Lincoln Chafee.  I might not like Ben Nelson's politics but we mostly leave him alone for a reason, taking him down would assuredly deliver the seat to a Republican.

When I read a passage like this, I immediately think, why aren't you a Club for Growth of the left? And if you aren't prepared to join one, why haven't others put one together?

Last week, Oklahoma's Democratic Governor Brad Henry, without comment, signed into law a group of five anti-choice measures.  These laws include a parental consent (not notification) rule that for the first time will require minors in Oklahoma to obtain the approval of at least one parent prior to obtaining an abortion.  The law also requires doctors to lecture women seeking an abortion about fetal pain, and treats the fetus as a legal human being when crimes are committed against a pregnant woman.

(Crossposted at Daily Kos)

Nearly three years into the illegal, unnecessary war on Iraq, a conflict that has cost this nation thousands of lives and billions of dollars, and has taken the lives of tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of Iraqis, the Democratic Party has still not come out against the war, has still not united around the growing chorus of voices calling for withdrawal.

There are essentially three explanations for this behavior.

crossposted at DailyKos

As public opinion marches steadily toward opposition to the Iraq War and the Bush administration's manipulations that got us into it, the Democrats stumble slowly behind.  The problem is not simply the lack of nerve shown most recently in the sorry backtracking from Dick Durbin's entirely reasonable statement on prisoner abuse.  

The Democratic Party remains divided on the Iraq War, between hawks who are in favor of adventures like Iraq, so long as they are competently planned and performed, and doves who oppose such wars in principle.  Despite all the awful news about Iraq in the last week, the hawks seem, if anything, newly emboldened.  Presidential contender Joe Biden gave a speech at the Brookings Institution outlining his aggressive plans to finally win the war in Iraq.    And the Democratic radio address today was delivered by Zbigniew Brzezinski, famous Cold War hawk, who similarly emphasized not that the war was wrong, but that it was incompetently carried out.