Gerhard Schroder went down to a staggering defeat in the European elections yesterday. The SPD won a mere 22 percent of the vote to the Christian Democrats’ 45 percent. In Britain’s local elections, Blair’s Labour Party came in a humiliating third – the worst performance for a governing party in British political history. Just as interesting was the surge in support for the new UK Independence Party, a group that, on the latest results, robbed both Labour and the Conservatives of significant backing. It may end up with around 15 percent of the vote. The UKIP wants withdrawal from the EU. The consequences? The UKIP won’t amount to much, but its success guarantees that Britain won’t join the Euro any time soon, and that the Tories may be drawn further to the right on the European issue. It’s no longer inconceivable that the Conservatives could win the next election – and provoke a real crisis in the EU. Some of this anti-Blair voting was doubtless due to Iraq. But there’s also the beginning of an understanding that Blair’s approach to public services – lots more money, minimal reform – won’t and can’t work. A future Tory government could get away with a more radical reform of the welfare state, some tax cuts, and a confrontation with Brussels. Goody.
THE MEMO: The Justice Department formally decided last year that torture could be justified in Guantanamo. Now we can have a debate. John Ashcroft and Don Rumsfeld need to explain why this was decided, what torture techniques are now approved, and when and how and where they have been used. I’ve been inundated with emails all enthusiastically supporting such torture. I beg to differ, but I certainly think it’s worth debating. What is not acceptable is for the government to decide for itself what is now legal or illegal, to keep it secret, to use abuse and torture in the name of the American people, and then, when horrors are revealed, place the blame on a few underlings. For his part, the president issued a Clintonian answer to the torture question last week:
Q Returning to the question of torture, if you knew a person was in U.S. custody and had specific information about an imminent terrorist attack that could kill hundreds or even thousands of Americans, would you authorize the use of any means necessary to get that information and to save those lives?
THE PRESIDENT: Jonathan, what I’ve authorized is that we stay within U.S. law.
But what if his own Justice Department wrote a memo arguing that, because of the war on terror, torture now is within the law, since the commander-in-chief can determine that law in wartime? That’s very close to Nixon’s statement that if the president does something, that makes it lawful. Look, I don’t think we should treat these prisoners as if they had a parking offense. Some are truly depraved individuals. I appreciate the difficult task any president would have fighting an unnamed enemy capable of terrible atrocities. But neither do I believe it is acceptable to do what we have apparently been doing – while keeping it out of the public domain.
The Dish 