Killing them softly: why the mild-mannered Dick Durbin became the GOP's top target.

• Author: Corn, David
• Position: Grand Old Party

On June 14, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Democratic whip, went to the Senate floor to say a few things about an issue that had long concerned him: the handling of prisoners and detainees at Guantanamo. He noted that the Bush administration had set aside longstanding treaties, and that Congress had neglected to "hold the administration accountable for its failure to follow the law of the land when it comes to the torture and mistreatment of prisoners and detainees." He said that for two years he had urged the Republicans to hold hearings on this issue. He pointed out that the Supreme Court had rejected portions of the Bush administration's detention policies. He cited an email from an FBI agent who complained that Guantanamo interrogators were using "torture techniques" and a report from another agent who had observed detainees "chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water." The prisoners, he read, were often covered in their own urine and feces and had been left in these conditions for 24 hours or more.

Durbin then raised his eyes from the report and addressed the chamber: "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, this is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners. It is not too late. I hope we will learn from history. I hope we will change course."

Conservatives went ballistic. Right-wing bloggers and media blasted Durbin and accused him of having compared American soldiers to Nazis. Talk show hosts derided him as "Turban Durbin." Columnist Michele Malkin branded him a traitor: "There is a war on. Durbin has shown us which side he's on." In the Weekly Standard, radio ranter Hugh Hewitt called for the Senate to censure Durbin. Newt Gingrich demanded similar action, and Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.)--who knows about controversial statements--urged Durbin to resign his leadership position. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld equated Durbin with Jane Fonda. Other administration officials and Republican senators piled on. Less than a week after Durbin's speech, a Google search for "Durbin Guantanamo Nazis" produced 44,000 hits. As the assault continued, even Chicago Mayor Richard Dale a Democrat whose son is currently serving in Iraq, publicly scolded Durbin, his political ally.

Durbin's comments--though not necessarily inaccurate--were ill-advised. As a rule, politicians ought to steer clear of comparisons to Hitler, Nazis, the Holocaust, and the Still, this rule has been broken before without reactions coming close to this level fury. In March, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) compared the Republican threat to end the judicial filibuster to Hitler's grab for power. A few months later, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) likened Senate Democrats who opposed the "nuclear option" to Hitler. Both comments drew complaints--but nothing like what happened to Durbin. What was it about his remarks that caused the right-wingers to aim such massive firepower at a 60-year-old, second-term senator whom most Americans had never heard of until that week?

The answer is that they went after Durbin because he's a threat. A triple threat, in fact. Today's Republicans may not be competent at planning wars or managing the federal treasury, but when it comes to the politics of attack, they know what they're doing. And they know whom in target. In the last six months, Democrats have scored political successes with an oppositional strategy that has made life difficult for Republicans on Social Security reform, judicial nominations, and the John Bolton confirmation. Durbin, a sharp tactician, has been Democratic Leader Harry Reid's chief partner in concocting that strategy and its details. Durbin is also good in front of a television camera and is often cited by Democrats as the party leader who can best argue the Democrats' case in the media. (He outshines Reid in this regard.) And Durbin, an active member of the judiciary committee and one of the toughest questioners in the Senate, is expected to assume a leading role in the battle over Bush's nominee to replace Sandra Day...