Booman Tribune: The Dems Get One Right on Torture

[Coexist]

Full story here

I've been pretty angry with the actions of Senate Democrats recently, but I have to give them props when they do do the right thing. In this case, they forced Bush to withdraw his nominee for CIA general counsel, John Rizzo, because of his connections to the CIA's use of torture enhanced interrogation techniques at secret foreign prisons. Here's the press release from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence :

Vice Chairman Bond stated: "Mr. Rizzo has a long and distinguished record of government service. There is, however, opposition in the Senate to his nomination, and it seems unlikely that he would have been confirmed. The CIA General Counsel is an important job that needs to be filled as soon as possible and pulling his nomination was probably for the best."

Nice when Chris "Kit" Bond, Republican wingnut extraordinaire from Missouri, and one of Bush's biggest lap dogs in the Senate, is forced to meekly acquiesce in the rejection of one of Bush's "FU" nominations to the Senate. For some details of Mr. Rizzo's "distinguished service" during the Bush years (and why his nomination was opposed so strongly by so many) go read this report from the archives of TPMMuckraker:

CIA General Counsel-Designate John A. Rizzo didn't just equivocate on whether he agreed with the Office of Legal Counsel's narrow definition of torture from August 2002. In his confirmation hearing today, Rizzo was all over the map about what the CIA actually did with detainees in its custody.