General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Forgive me if I roll my eyes at your precious outrage about torture. [View all]True Blue Door
(2,969 posts)There was a stark change in the attitude of Senate Democrats toward criticizing Bush sometime in 2002, where it went from full-throated dissent to terrified tiptoeing around their criticisms, practically gagging on their words sometimes when they scrounged for euphemisms they didn't use before.
The nonverbal behavior of some signified physical fear when the subject was Bush and particularly his War on Terror measures, and as I say their rhetoric and word choices also became very different very suddenly. Patrick Leahy was the most obvious example, and given his position as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time in a 50/50 Senate, his compliance with regime demands would have been a key priority for them.
There are a number of alternative interpretations I could offer for what I saw, but none fit the context as well. Most of us remember this, right? That Democratic Senators in 2002 suddenly started acting very, very afraid of Bush? They weren't exactly political pugilists to begin with, but this was a remarkable extreme. I might be tempted to think it was cowardly politicking in preparation for the elections, but Leahy wasn't up for election that year, and none of the House Democrats acted like that either.