Gonzales debate as seen by Cornyn

Tim Grieve of Salon asks our sympathy for John "It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle" Cornyn:

Poor John Cornyn.

The Texas Republican just left the Senate floor, where he explained that he's sick and tired of hearing the "same old tired arguments being brought up, time and time again" by his Democratic colleagues. Those would be the arguments about Alberto Gonzales, the arguments about whether a man who solicited -- and signed off on -- a 2002 legal memorandum that defined away the meaning of "torture" should become the nation's next attorney general.

Cornyn has heard it all before, and he's so totally not impressed. He wants to set the record straight, and he used his time on the Senate floor to do just that.

[snip]

The senator finds it all so sad. He thought there would be a "new beginning" when the new Congress came to Washington, and he says that the Democrats' opposition to Alberto Gonzales "does not bode well" for that. Cornyn is especially worried about the president's judicial nominees. As part of Cornyn's "new beginning," Bush has re-nominated 16 extremist judges the Democrats blocked previously. As part of Cornyn's "new beginning," he figured the Democrats would respond by embracing the judges they once opposed. "But here again," sad John says, "I think we have seen an unfortunate continuation of the tactics and the bad habits that our opponents in this debate have lapsed into, and perhaps the know no other way to proceed than through obstruction and mischaracterization."

Like his uniting-not-dividing president, Cornyn is trying so hard to extend the olive branch to those who don't agree with him. He's mystified why the Democrats -- the ones he calls members of a "political insurgency" -- won't reach out and take it.

All hail Tim Grieve. My reaction to John Cornyn is much less witty, consisting as it mainly does of screaming unprintables at the TV. For that matter, not one of the republicans I have seen has managed to elevate himself and speak to the larger truth. The main contribution to the debate so far from the right side of the aisle is to point out that Gonzales is of Hispanic origin and was once poor. And you just can't get enough of hearing them say over and over again, How dare you? It's a festival of weasel words and false piety.

On a day that saw video released showing prisoner abuse at Gitmo you'd think maybe a little fact-based humility might be in order.