Republicans talking sense, not just Republican talking points

Today's Crooks and Liars links to a couple of refreshing items: Republicans talking sense about political and moral issues. Usually, you expect the extremist truthiness, specious arguments, and fuzzy thinking about issues, but here we have a couple examples of intelligent, rational, and moral positions, not mere moral posturing. If it's a bug going around in the Republican party, let's hope it's catching.

The first is Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on why we should not come up with our own, watered-down interpretation of the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners, as Bush is desperate to enact. (Part of Bush's motivation, of course, is to make legal, retroactively, the many war crimes he has committed through condoning inhumane treatment of prisoners in secret prisons. If you break the law, it's convenient to be able to change what the law used to be so you're off the hook.)

The other is former Republican Senator and Episcopalian minister John Danforth on the extremist positions espoused by Bush/Cheney and the Christian right, including criticisms of the the position that this is a "Christian country." Just imagine how different the last 6 years would have been if Danforth had been chosen for VP rather than Cheney.