Dear Democratic Senators: Stand up for the Rule of Law and don't let Karl get under your skin

Here is a letter I just sent to all the Democratic Senators on the torture bill.

Dear Senators:

Please, please, please, you do not need to be shoved around by Karl Rove. You can throw strength in the war on terror back in their faces. Please "Stand Tall for the Rule of Law": by focusing on the importance of the Rule of Law, it becomes clear that we strengthen ourselves by not letting Osama Bin Laden and a few violent men get us to abandon our principles, and that promoting torture will weaken us in the war on terror. This is a simple point to make, and it is the right one. It will not take many words, and no complicated words, to remind most Americans that they really agree with you, and to make Bush and Cheney look as stupid as they are. Here's the one-and-one-half minute speech. Democrats will win this battle if you use it -- or pull out elements of it for the 45, 30 and 15 second versions (use just the bold portions in sequence, for example, for a 30-second statement) -- and repeat it over and over and over:

This bill is a political ploy by the Administration before an election. You can hear Karl Rove chortling: Make Democrats vote to PROTECT TERRORISTS, no matter how stupid the bill is. And make no mistake about it, this is an incredibly stupid bill that actually weakens us in the war on terror. It's kindergarden math: lose allies, create more terrorists, learn nothing. Strike Three -- not exactly a recipe for success.

We led the way in creating the Rule of Law in the Geneva Accords to protect our own soldiers, and we undermine it at our own peril even if this enemy could not care less about it.

Once upon a time, the Republican Party stood for Law and Order. Not any more.

We need to fight tough AND smart. It's very simple: IF we don’t stand up for the Rule of Law, IF we fall for this adolescent made-for-TV fantasy of beating the truth out of prisoners if we just get gruesome enough, or that in order to beat al Qaeda, we must descend to the same level of barbarism as al Qaeda … and IF we are seen as the country that wants to torture prisoners, especially Muslim prisoners, and as a country that will let a handful of criminals cause it to abandon its historic Constitutional principles of checks-and-balances, then we lose the help of allies in the war on terror, and we create more terrorists – all for getting prisoners, who may or may not be guilty of anything, to make up any story they think their torturers want to hear. Lose allies, more terrorists – How stupid can we get? [as they say in Hollywood, what a concept! In this case, of course, what a stupid concept!]