The "moderate" Mississippi Senator

Okay, I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone call hardline torture supporter Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) "moderate".

But until recently I had always thought of him as the more respectable of the two Republican Senators from Mississippi, the other being Trent Lott.

I don't know how that notion got started. Maybe it was a throwback to earlier days, when conservative Democrat Jim Eastland was more of a blantant racist than John Stennis, though both were staunch segregationists.

Robert Scheer quotes civilized torture supporter Cochran about a meeting he attended with other Republican Senators to hear Dear Leader Bush's instructions about the Battle of the Surge in Iraq (Brooding Prince's Soliloquy Truthdig.org 01/09/07)

"He seemed very confident," said Sen. Thad Cochran, a Republican from Mississippi. "I’m convinced he has come up with a proposal that he thinks will work." But Cochran confessed to feeling lonely in his faith: "I think I was the only senator who acted like he would be supportive. I was surprised that no one said it but me."

So, the nice, civilized Thad Cochrane is an Iraq War deadender, a real McCain Republican.

Tags: iraq war, thad cochrane