Whenever Bush is in trouble they take something to show that the Democrats were equally complicit. It makes me sick that Pelosi, Graham and Rockefeller all kept quiet - but do you remember hearing that Harmon objected in a letter? Even if all 4 objected in letters - it was after all highly classified - we would still not have known and it would have gone on as planned. There are likely other things like this - after all why did only 10 Senators sign Kerry's letter on Phase 2.
However, there is a big difference from observing and not having the guts to take to the Senate (or House) floor and say what they saw. Any who did it who have been skewered in the RW press, but they couldn't be charged. That though would have been an act of extraordinary courage - far beyond writing a letter that wouldn't be see. The other thing was that it was already in the media that there were videos - this is really not new. Also, ALL the Congressmen were allowed to see all the photos - and many condemned the actions. (Possibly including these 3)
In fact, the media and the Democrats DID make this an issue. I found this googling to find something said by any of the 3. Here is a right wing source that from a different perspective :) blasts the Democrats (and Kerry, in particular, because they hate him) on unfairly blaming people over Abu Ghraib. Note that they site that the NYT covered it every day for weeks. In context, I hope this is an appropriate use of a RW source.
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/jason-aslinger/2007/08/29/only-military-officer-charged-abu-ghraib-acquitted-no-vindication-ruAs to Rockefeller, here is a not helpful May 2004 quote, that is sickening given this 2003 information.
"he top Democrat on the intelligence panel, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, also stressed that the probe is still open.
"Both the Department of Defense and the CIA have not completed their respective investigations ... into whether Army military police and contractor personnel at Abu Ghraib were acting at the direction of their superiors or acting on their own volition in carrying out these abuses," he said.
Rockefeller also said that in addition to looking at the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the committee would take a larger look at "how detention and interrogation is handled -- not just at that particular prison but at all prisons where our enemy's people may be detained and are in the process of being interrogated."
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/05/congress.abuse/index.htmlI guess this is like the Phase 2 investigation still being open.
In contrast, here is what Senator Kennedy wrote a year after the abuses were known. Reading it, it is clear that the descriptions alone, not even counting the photos sufficed - no one needed a video.
http://tedkennedy.com/journal/59/abu-ghraib---one-year-laterThere should be some pushback here - the Democrats spoke out against torture and this is an attempt to smear the differences.