Time to draw a line in the sand

All the Senators who have expressed outrage (or even dismay) over the apparent US comfort with a policy of torture are about to have the chance to put their money where there mouths are: it's time for the vote on confirmation of Gonzales for Attorney General. I understand the "President has a lot of leeway in Cabinet choices" argument, but this is our only chance to make a statement as a nation to the rest of the world that our professed principles actually mean something to us. Urge your Senator to vote no on Gonzales.

Need encouragement?

• Here's my previous post How Bad is Gonzales really?
  
• Here's a letter from a heap of generals opposing his nomination
  
• Here's a blogger petition over at kos (which I have already given my name to)

  As the prime legal architect for the policy of torture adopted by the Bush Administration, Gonzales's advice led directly to the abandonment of longstanding federal laws, the Geneva Conventions, and the United States Constitution itself. Our country, in following Gonzales's legal opinions, has forsaken its commitment to human rights and the rule of law and shamed itself before the world with our conduct at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. The United States, a nation founded on respect for law and human rights, should not have as its Attorney General the architect of the law's undoing.
  . . .
  Michael Posner of Human Rights First observed: "After the horrific images from Abu Ghraib became public last year, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld insisted that the world should 'judge us by our actions [and] watch how a democracy deals with the wrongdoing and with scandal and the pain of acknowledging and correcting our own mistakes.'" We agree. It is because of this that we believe the only proper course of action is for the Senate to reject Alberto Gonzales's nomination for Attorney General. As Posner notes, "[t]he world is indeed watching." Will the Senate condone torture? Will the Senate condone the rejection of the rule of law?

• The nomination will be voted on by next week. It was voted against by all the Committee Dems, which hardly makes this a resounding recommendation.
  

This may just happen, given the party-line divide, but then let's let the Republicans take full responsibility for the stain they're forcing on our national honor. No Democrat should vote for this monster. Nor should any Republican of conscience, although I realize that the pressure on them to toe the line will be unbelievable. Here's a list of the contact info of all Senators -- go! call, email, write, while there's still time!