Dick Durbin has had a rough day.

It began with an interview on WGN Radio’s Spike O’Dell show this morning where, doing his best imitation of a pretzel, Dirty Dick twisted and twisted and twisted until he had himself so tied up in knots trying to minimize his Gitmo interrogators-are-worse-than-Nazis charge that he resembled a piece of uncooked rotini:

Q. I guess one of the reasons people are having such a hard time with this one, is when comparisons are made and you use names like Nazis and Soviet gulags, when you are talking Nazis there were what, 9 million people killed in the camps there. The gulags had about 3 million and so forth. And I know Gitmo is not the Holiday Inn down there, but I don’t think anyone has died down there, have they?

Durbin: No, that’s true. In all fairness, they did not. But I don’t believe we were dealing with deaths at Abu Ghraib either. We were dealing with a situation where when people saw the digital camera photographs, they said “My God! Americans should not be involved in that kind of conducrt.” Now I will not demean or diminish the terrible atrocities that were commtted by the Soviets and the Nazis. The points I was, the point I was trying to make there was, if I just read this to you and say “What kind of country, what kind of governemtn would do that,” and you’d think of some of the most repressive regimes in history. Sadly this FBI report says its being done by our government. I don’t know who in our government. But it should stop….

Notice how Senator Potato Head swears he’s not diminishing the atrocities at death camps and gulags where millions died…and then proceeds to do so by recognizing that there have been no deaths at Gitmo. This is a typical liberal tactic where the words that come out of their mouths don’t matter. It’s what they say they mean that counts.

The Senator had a brief respite when the Chicago Tribune rode to his rescue:

With his unassuming Midwestern demeanor and genial bearing, Dick Durbin is no one’s vision of a political street fighter.

Yet Illinois’ senior senator—who is growing in stature as a national Democratic voice and a font of strategic and communications advice for a party eager to regain its footing—found himself on the receiving end of Republican outrage this week.
In the face of an organized Republican brouhaha over his remarks, Durbin refused to back down. He maintained that the Bush administration bears responsibility for creating the conditions that led to the mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo by saying they were not subject to the Geneva Conventions.

Returning to the Senate floor Thursday night, Durbin reread his original statement, saying he wanted his colleagues to understand the context of his remarks. “It has been nothing short of amazing,” he said of the reaction.

“Was I trying to say, `Isn’t this the kind of thing we see from repressive regimes?’ Yes. This is the kind of thing we expect from repressive regimes and not from the United States,” Durbin said in response to hostile questioning from Republican Sens. John Warner of Virginia and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Warner called Durbin’s comparisons “a grievous error in judgment.”

Good ‘ole cornpone Dick! He’s just an “unassuming” sort, the kind you might want to invite over to supper after church on Sunday. Just don’t get him started on Gitmo – he’ll spoil your appetite.

Rush Limbaugh, of course, has been in his element with Durbin saying “Al Jazeera loves you, Sen. Durbin, probably more than the people that voted for you in Illinois could ever love you.” Limbaugh was referring to a piece on the arab propoganda organ that praised Durbin so much they even forgot to report what was in the FBI email about the specifics of the “torture.”

And that’s the nub of the matter here. Durbin and the Democrats are upset that we didn’t read these terrorists their rights and immediately get them lawyers from the ACLU or some other communist-front moonbat legal organization that would have made sure that each and every one of these bloodthirsty galoots would have walked out of our custody as free men. Why? Because the evidence against these men has been gleaned from sources and methods that are among the most closely guarded secrets in government. To reveal them would severely hamper our efforts to protect ourselves from their brothers who at this moment are planning to kill as many of us with one blow as they possibly can.

The fact that a United States Senator – the number two Democrat in all the Senate – doesn’t realize this and continues to criticize the US for not abiding by the Geneva Convention (which doesn’t recognize these cutthroats as soldiers in the first place) is proof positive that the Democratic party is not ready to lead this country. Until these fools get serious about the threat we face, a majority of Americans – not a large majority but just barely enough – will refuse to hand them the keys to the kingdom.

Here’s more of what poor Senator Lickspittle has had to put up with today:

Van Helsing:

I can’t explain the surreal hyperbole surrounding the supposed abuse of terrorists, other than to say it’s a matter of psychopathology as much as politics. At least some of the irresponsible fools in the chorus Durbin has joined must be aware that they are not only insulting and demoralizing both our troops and our country; they are not only providing critical propaganda support to al Qaeda and impeding the Government’s ability to prevent the next 9/11; they are also trivializing the horrors that the profoundly evil ideologies of communism and fascism have inflicted on millions of innocent victims. What sort of sickness makes them want to do that?

It’s the sickness of withdrawal. They were in power for so long and now, being out of power, are unable to adjust to their status as minority party. They have no idea what “loyal opposition” means. If you read floor debates held during the civil war, you get an eerie feeling of deja vu. The Dems had been in power for 30 years prior to that war and acted pretty much the same way – they sought to regain power even if it meant splitting the union.

Stephen Green:

Equating anything and everything thus far reported from Guantanamo with “torture” is nonsense on stilts. Air conditioning changes, intimidation, sleep deprivation and having your personal space invaded by a woman? Hell, I put up with worse stuff that that at summer camp. What will they threaten these thugs with next, the comfy chair?

Sorry Steve, beat you to the comfy chair theme days ago.

Jay Tea at Wizbang:

There’s an old aphorism that says “as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.” Since we’re already being punished for “torturing” these detainees, why don’t we go ahead and do it already?

We already know beyond a shadow of a doubt that some of these detainees have extensive knowledge and experience as terrorists. It’s time to take the handcuffs off our interrogators and let them do whatever they believe is necessary to get the information we need out of them. Let’s use pain, discomfort, drugs, deception, anything we can on these terrorists. Since we’re already suffering the consequences of using torture, it only makes sense to me that we gain the benefits of such. Let’s show the world just what good old American ingenuity, inventiveness, and resources can achieve.

Don’t worry…Jay Tea points out the drawbacks of that strategy in the rest of the post.

Joe Braue writes a letter to Senator Sniveler:

Your comments on Gitmo are way, way over the top, Dick. You need to resign, right now, and save yourself the disgrace of being recalled by your voters. I’d insult you if you had any worth, any integrity or dignity or even decency to shame, but clearly you don’t. And one more thing I won’t do – give you the respect of being called Senator, ever again. The more Americans willing to disrespect you the way you have disrespected us, the better, Dick.

We both know your little tizzy was a publicity gimmick, but if you really want to display your deep concern for human rights, you might look into the cesspit your buddy’s running at the Cook County jail – it makes Gitmo look like Club Med. On second thought, probably not enough media attention in it for you. And there would be actual, real atrocities to point to, in your state, on your watch. But please, keep the great quotes coming, Dick. The Republicans won’t even need to campaign in your state this year.

Not just the jail. I pointed this out in a post a few days ago:

When one consider’s what this terrorist had to endure – extreme heat, extreme cold, loud rap music – perhaps Senator Moonbat should take a walk down Lawrence Avenue in Chicago in the middle of the Summer (or Winter). Every year, several hundred Chicagoan’s die as a result of no air conditioning during the Summer or heat during the Winter. And the overbearing presence of loud rap music is part of the “color” of some of those neighborhoods. And yet, we strangely have never heard the Senator get up on the floor of the Senate and lambast his good buddy Mayor Daley for allowing such things to occurr.

It would seem the Senator has more sympathy for people who want to blow us to kingdom come than he has for his own constituents.

Here’s a very serious (well, mostly) Jeff Goldstein:

You see? All Senator Dick was really doing was showing his love of country! And—dissent being the highest form of patriotism—it follows that the more vicious and speculative the dissent, the more fervent and geniune the patriotism. Which means that Durbin’s comparing Gitmo soldiers to the murderers of a combined 30 some-odd million civilians? One of the single greatest expressions of patriotism EVER!

Jeff’s takedown of Pandagon’s Jesse Taylor is classic Goldstein. The left’s current defense is that it’s patriotic to give aid and comfort to the enemy during wartime. Of course, they don’t quite put it that way. As I said earlier, it’s not what they say, it’s what they say they mean that counts.

We have yet to hear one word of condemnation from Senator Wanker’s colleagues. Until we do – until we see Dick Durbin in the well of the Senate Chamber abjectly apologizing for his sickening slander, the drumbeat will continue.