Senator Dick's Democrass dementia.

Best of the Web Today has the latest on that wildly effective Democrass campaign tactic: self-immolation. As an added treat, some ventriloquist digs up Vanessa Redgrave's corpse. (He's very talented. Sounds exactly like something she would say.)

'Some May Believe'

Dick Durbin took to the Senate floor yesterday to apologize tearfully for likening American troops to Nazis. Well, sort of. "Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line," the Washington Post quotes the Senate's No. 2 Democrat as saying. "To them I extend my heartfelt apologies." (Blogger Ian Schwartz has video.)

As National Review's Kathryn Lopez notes, it would have been better if Durbin had simply said, I crossed the line. I was wrong. I'm sorry. But the Post reports his Republican colleagues were inclined to accept his apology.
What's really appalling is that so few prominent Democrats--with the notable exception of Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago--expressed any objection to Durbin's calumny. Indeed, many vigorously defended it. Here's Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, quoted by the conservative Illinois Leader (hat tip: blogger John Ruberry):

"The Bush Administration and Republican leaders are engaged in a pathetic attempt to make Senator Dick Durbin's condemnation of the use of torture at Guantanamo Bay an issue. As a result of the revelations of conditions at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram prison in Afghanistan, the Republicans owe the American people, our soldiers and veterans an apology for undermining American values such as the Rule of Law, putting our troops at greater risk around the world, and cutting veterans health care benefits when they come home."

An editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, possibly the most far-left big-city daily in America, actually blasted Durbin--not for likening the troops to Nazis but for "caving in" and issuing a nonapology last week that implied the comparison might not have been totally justified:

The senator should have hit back hard, just as the Amnesty International did when its comparison of Guantanamo to the Soviet gulag was attacked. By caving in, Durbin did just what the orchestrated right-wing smear effort required to succeed: It made him the story rather than focusing further attention on the outrageous violations of international law and human rights being perpetrated in Guantanamo and elsewhere in the name of the American people.

Last week on CNN's "Larry King Live," guest host Bob Costas put a question to left-wing actress Vanessa Redgrave:

Costas: Even given the mistakes or perceived mistakes of American policy, what is the greater evil in the world, America and its policies or America's enemies?

Redgrave: It's an important question. One of our most respected judges and highest up in our judicial system said that laws which detain indefinitely without charge, without trial, without defense, without prosecution, without evidence, without cross examination, are a greater evil than terrorism, and I feel the same, actually.

Many of us suspect that this is the prevailing attitude of the liberal left. Durbin's comments and the Democrats' reactions to them certainly do nothing to alleviate this impression.