Happily Wrong

Having opinions, as well as the habit of expressing them, puts one at risk some times, but what's life without a little risk. In this instance, the risk proves well worth it.

Try this: I am happy to have been proven wrong. Why? Well, there's a sense of discovery, also a sense of getting my information more correct than previously, and, best of all perhaps, it's good for the humility.

Here's the thing. I often am willing to rely on my instincts to make judgments, (necessary for voting, by the way,) about political figures who are often in the news. It has usually proven correct, from "Tricky Dick" all the way to "Devious George." In both cases, and in many others, I have hit the nail right on the head. Of late, I have seen much of Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on the screen, either in a Senate hearing room as a member of a committee, or in press conferences outside those rooms. Instinctively, I didn't like the guy. Now, I don't know what he has for breakfast, whether or not he beats his wife, what his civil rights background is, or whether or not he has ever been arrested for DUI, but I do know this: in the discussion on the legal system for treating the Gitmo detainees, this guy stands tall. In opposition to the President, a fellow Republican, he is speaking up in behalf of a truly American system for their legal processing. "I'm a big fan of the Geneva Conventions," he said yesterday. Holy Smoke! A Republican who's a big fan of the Geneva Conventions. His point in this is purely democratic: the systems we set up for this issue will say more about what WE believe than what others have done. This is the sort of position the world has expected from us, not the harsh, near-fascist approach of the Rovites in this world.

The recent Supreme Court decision on this matter began a trail of "chickens coming home to roost" for the Bush/Rove/Cheney cabal. Hope like crazy, however, that the neocons do not get one more Scalia-clone on the Court.

On to November. And has anyone remembered about Darfur? They're still dying.

End of ruminations for today, July 18, '06. Stay the course.