Sherrod Brown Admits He Was Wrong to Vote For Torture


From the Young Turks radio show:

Cenk Uygur: Thanks for joining us Senator. We appreciate it. I gotta start off with the question we've had now for over six months, I gotta ask you, why did you vote for the Military Commissions Act?

Senator Brown: It was a bad vote. I shouldn't have.

Cenk Uygur: Oh, wow. Okay.

Senator Brown: A vote I'll correct ... when it comes.

Cenk Uygur: So, you regret that?

Senator Brown: I take responsibility. It was the heat of the campaign and I made a mistake.

Cenk Uygur: So, if it comes again you're going to change the vote?

Senator Brown: You bet.

Good to hear. Clean admission of a mistake. But I'm not feeling all that forgiving yet. At the time I wrote that I'd consider forgiving when it was fixed. He was well up in the polls and didn't need to pander and at the time he said it was a vote of principle. Coming from someone who had a record different from Brown - someone more right wing, I'd be a lot more forgiving. But Brown is very progressive in most respects and his vote was so clearly out of character that it smacked of the worst sort of calculation.

Still, he did admit he was wrong, and those of us who want people to change their minds should reward such behaviour. So good for you Mr. Brown. Now see what you can do to fix it, eh?


Ian Welsh June 18, 2007 - 9:22pm
( categories: Human Rights | Opinion )

Yes indeed. Senator Brown takes "full responsibility" for his support of the Military Commissions Act. This is in the spirit of George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and others who have taken "full responsibility" for their horrific actions. Brown basically trashed the U.S. Constitution with his vote for the MCA. Without the right of habeas corpus the constitution has no meaning and in the same way everything that America supposedly represents has no meaning. Thank you Sherrod Brown. A slight mistake taken for political expediency that was questionably needed. Who could imagine another such situation that might arise where Brown would feel the need to trash basic rights against oppression established for almost a thousand years? Then there's the added Sherrod Brown support of absolving war criminals of war crimes they have committed. Yes, another added plus of the MCA that Brown voted for.

This is not someone worthy of the slightest future support. This is a sellout of the most fundamental principles in the most fundamental way. Maybe if he took "full responsibility" in the samurai way, with a knife and a helper standing by with a sword I might forgive Brown. That's the level of sellout he is.

Oh, "populist" Brown also voted for the recent Iraq war supplemental when there was a chance to put some end to the horror that is the Bush Republican Iraq war. Guess which way Brown voted.

Amos Anan June 19, 2007 - 6:02am

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