Will the Republicans legalize torture?

Glenn Reynolds, while claiming to be personally opposed to (legal) torture (even before Alan Dershowitz was promoting it!) uses his bully pulpit to link every pro-torture argument in the known universe while offering almost no opposing argument. Reynolds even offers this caution against making torture an issue in the Gonzales hearings:

I think the effort to turn this [torture] into an anti-Bush political issue is a serious mistake, and the most likely outcome will be, in essence, the ratification of torture (with today’s hype becoming tomorrow’s reality) and a political defeat for the Democrats.

In other words, if the torture issue is raised , the Republicans will “ratify torture” and it will be the fault of people who oppose torture for raising the issue. I guess that answers this question. And confirms this observation. No wonder this is no big deal.

Gonzales

Gonzales poster via Norwegianity

UPDATE: Reynolds responds to this accurate criticism by Andrew Sullivan by saying, “And critics — and I’m explicitly including Andrew in this — don’t seem very interested in outlining what conduct is appropriate and what isn’t, but rather in blurring the lines.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Glen, what is appropriate and what isn’t was outlined and agreed to long ago – it’s called the Geneva Convention, to which the US is a signatory. That agreement is what Bush and Gonzales are trying to destroy.