Wow, finally some good news. I’ve been kind of avoid political news since that Black Day in November, because it was just too miserable to face, but here are some stories that show me a little ray of hope. (Of course, the cynic in me says this is just because the crush will be that much worse after a gleam of hope.)
First, apparently the Administration is, at least publicly, moving away from the idea that torture is sometimes OK, and that the President’s power is ultra vires … well, anything.
The BBC are reporting that the Justice Department has changed their definition of torture to something more broad than what Gonzales et. al. had defined it as in the run up to Abu Ghraib.
The Justice Department has placed the full memo online in PDF format.
The short version is that the President doesn’t get carte blanche to override anti-torture laws, even in wartime, and nation security interests are no longer a defense against charges of torture, which are surely both good things, but you should read the whole thing.
The second piece of good news is that the House Republicans have apparently backed away from their earlier vote to shatter all pretense of ethics, a.k.a. “The DeLay Rule”. An article in yesterday’s NYT tells the story:
Stung by criticism that they were lowering ethical standards, House Republicans on Monday night reversed a rule change that would have allowed a party leader to retain his position even if indicted.
and also
Lawmakers said the party had also abandoned a proposed ethics change that would have effectively eliminated the broad standard that lawmakers not engage in conduct that brings discredit on the House, a provision that has been the basis for many ethics findings against lawmakers.
I’m giving a lot of credit for this to Josh over at TPM, by the way, who did yeoman service at organizing pressure around this decision, and keeping it in the spotlight.
