Martin Sieff of UPI thinks that the Bush Administration is starting to lose support where it can’t afford to lose it:
The pattern of the latest wave of revelations is clear: They are coming from significant numbers of senior figures in both the U.S. military and intelligence services. They reflect the disgust and contempt widely felt in both communities at the excesses; and at long last, they are being listened to seriously by senior Republican, as well as Democratic, senators on Capitol Hill.
The torture revelations couldn’t have done this by themselves. But coming on top of “a long train of abuses and usurpations,” it is possible that they have really convinced some of the folks whose support a President needs that Bush simply won’t do.
Fred Kaplan senses the same phenomenon.
The knives are out all over Washington—lots of knives, unsheathed and sharpened in many different backroom parlors, for many motives and many throats.