Despite the torture memo revelations, Democratic leaders are showing little interest in prosecuting torturers, according to Jason Leopold:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy reiterated his calls for a bipartisan “truth commission.”

“The Bush administration not only ran roughshod over our values and law, they undercut the public trust of the American people and tarnished American’s prestige and authority throughout the world,” Leahy said. “These legal memoranda demonstrate in alarming detail exactly what the Bush administration authorized for “high value detainees” in U.S. custody. The techniques are chilling. This was not an “abstract legal theory,” as some former Bush administration officials have characterized it.  These were specific techniques authorized to be used on real people.

“We cannot continue to look the other way; we need to understand how these policies were formed if we are to ensure that this can never happen again. This is why my proposal for a Commission of Inquiry is necessary.  We must take a thorough accounting of what happened, not to move a partisan agenda, but to own up to what was done in the name of national security, and to learn from it.”

But Leahy has previously said that such a committee would never get off the ground without the support of Republicans.

Republicans are adamantly opposed to a Truth Commission, and support prosecution instead. So why doesn't Senator Leahy simply adopt their position and call for prosecution?

Sen. Carl Levin, D-MI, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said “If we are to retain our status as a leader in the world, we must acknowledge and confront these abuses. Only then can we credibly object to the use of abusive tactics on our troops when they are captured.”

Levin’s committee is expected to release the full declassified report on the roles senior Bush administration officials played in implementing torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. The report, which is 200 pages and contains 2000 footnotes, is in the process of being declassified by the Defense Department.

Levin stresses the simple point that no one else ever mentions - if we don't want our captured soldiers to be tortured, then we'd better not torture prisoners ourselves!

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, who requested a couple of weeks ago that Holder appoint a special prosecutor to begin a criminal investigation into the Bush administration’s use of torture, did not renew those calls following the release of the memos.

“The legal analysis and some of the techniques in these memos are truly shocking and mark a disturbing chapter in our nation's history,” Conyers said. “Hopefully these practices have been ended for all time. Critical questions still remain, including the role and legal culpability of high-ranking officials in the former administration in directing and approving the use of these troubling techniques. I urge the administration to continue to ensure that the rule of law is upheld concerning this matter."

The only way to "ensure that the rule of law is upheld" is through prosecution. Conyers knows it so why won't he come out and say it?