I was shocked to read this in today's First Read from MSNBC on the fierce debate on torture between chickenhawk George Bush and Republican hawks like John McCain, Lindsay Graham, John Warner, and Colin Powell:

some analysts don't think the current debate will wind up hurting Republicans much at the polls in November.  NBC political analyst Charlie Cook notes that as long as Topic #1 is detainee policy instead of the unpopular war in Iraq, that's a plus for the GOP.

Is Charlie Cook out of his friggin' mind???

Here are a few pictures we've all seen. Will Americans - including Christian "values voters" - vote for politicians who support this? 

Notice the picture on the right. That prisoner (an Iraqi detainee named Manadel al-Jamadi) is dead - and is just one of dozens, most of which we haven't seen:

That's what torture leads to.

I went looking for polls on torture. Incredibly, it's nearly impossible to find any polls. The only recent poll was in December by ABC News/Washington Post Poll. Amazingly, neither ABC nor the Pentagon Post published the results, as far as I can tell:

"Just your best guess, do you think the U.S. government as a matter of policy is or is not using torture as part of the U.S. campaign against terrorism?"

	Using Torture	Not Using Torture	Unsure
12/15-18/05	56%	39%	5%
5/20-23/04	51%	43%	6%

"Would you regard the use of torture against people suspected of involvement in terrorism as an acceptable or unacceptable part of the U.S. campaign against terrorism?"

	Acceptable	Unaccept- able	Depends
12/15-18/05	32%	64%	3%

So what do we learn from this data?

Despite Bush's repeated lies that "the U.S. does not torture," Americans aren't fools. In 5/04, a 51%-43% majority believed the U.S. was torturing prisoners; by 12/05, that majority increased to 56%-39%. Now that Bush has admitted we use "alternative methods" to interrogate prisoners - which everyone else calls torture - that majority should be trending towards 100%-0%.

And how do Americans feel about our use of torture? By 2:1 (64%-32%), Americans consider torture of terrorism suspects to be unacceptable.

Here are the action items:

1. Email Charlie Cook (ccook@nationaljournal.com - be polite of course) and ask him how on earth a debate on legalizing torture can be good for the GOP? Especially when it is a debate between a deeply unpopular President who consistently lies about torture to the point where very few Americans believe him - and the most popular Republican candidate to succeed him, who spent over 5 years as a POW in Vietnam, mostly at the infamous Hanoi Hilton?
2. Email Dan Balz (balzd@washpost.com) and Richard Morin (morinr@washpost.com) of the Pentagon Post and ask them (politely of course) why they refused to report the results of their own poll on torture? Also ask why they have not asked these questions in their most recent polls - and whether they will ask them again now that torture is the top story in the news?
3. Email Gary Langer (newspolls@abc.com) of ABC and ask him (politely of course) why he refused to report the results of their own poll on torture? Also ask why they have not asked these questions in their most recent polls - and whether they will ask them again now that torture is the top story in the news?
4. Email all of the media pollsters and ask them to include questions about torture in their next poll: daniel.m.merkle@abc.com, newspolls@abc.com, ttompson@ap.org, wlester@ap.org, info@americanresearchgroup.com, evening@cbsnews.com, KAF@cbsnews.com, jeff.greenfield@cnn.com, wolf@cnn.com, bill.schneider@turner.com, info@edisonresearch.com, askfox@fox.com, comments@foxnews.com, rthomas@harrisinteractive.com, jgorman@opiniondynamics.com, david_wilson@gallup.com, darby_miller_steiger@gallup.com, david_moore@gallup.com, media_inquiries@gallup.com, rthomas@harrisinteractive.com, Info@harrisinteractive.com, timespoll@latimes.com, maristpoll@marist.edu, Mark.Murray@nbc.com, sheldon.gawiser@nbc.com, nightly@nbc.com, nytnews@nytimes.com, rich@nytimes.com, topurd@nytimes.com, adamnag@nytimes.com, letters@newsweek.com, Marcus.Mabry@newsweek.com, livingpolitics@aol.com, pcraighill@pewresearch.org, skeeter@pewresearch.org, info@people-press.org, pollinginstitute@quinnipiac.edu, Info@rasmussenreports.com, editor@surveyusa.com, spage@usatoday.com, rbenedetto@usatoday.com, editor@usatoday.com, wsjcontact@dowjones.com, morinr@washpost.com, balzd@washpost.com, ombudsman@washpost.com, abramowitz@washpost.com, newseditors@wsj.com, john.harwood@wsj.com
5. Sign our War Crimes Petition to prosecute George Bush and other top administration officials responsible for torture