Bush relents on torture

President Bush has given his backing to the McCain anti-torture amendment.

The White House and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) reached agreement today on a measure that would ban torture and limit interrogation tactics in U.S. detention facilities, a provision that the Bush administration had strongly resisted but that received broad support in Congress.

The agreement, announced after President Bush met with McCain and Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) in the Oval Office, came a day after the House overwhelmingly approved language supported by McCain that would prohibit "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" of anyone in the custody of the U.S. government. The Senate approved the provision by a lopsided margin earlier.

All this after 122 members of the House stood with him in oppostion to the amendment just yesterday, effectively declaring themselves pro-torture.

Congratulations, you foolish Republicans. You have made a public spectacle of the loss of your humanity. Even your president did not consider torture worth defending when push came to shove.

This is what happens when you abandon morality, human decency and common sense to indulge the whims of an ideology, a party or a man. The loyalties of men and institutions are fickle. You cannot rely on them. They will, as George W. Bush has done, abandon you when it serves their purposes to do so.

Then, you are left alone with nothing to cover you but your shame.