Dear Senator McCain:

Thank you very much for your courageous work to uphold the bans on torture established in the Constitution, in American law, and in treaties.

I have admired you throughout your career and voted for you during the primaries of 2000. However, the subsequent wrongdoing in Florida made me question my Republican roots, and the torture memos -- authored by then-White House counsel Gonzales and Justice Department lawyer Bybee, and written under the aegis of President Bush, Secretary Rumsfeld, and Attorney General Ashcroft -- made me vow never to vote for another Republican as long as I live. The Bush Administration has betrayed our nation and our values by seeking to employ torture, so long as it's not actually called "torture" -- as if the word itself were evil, but not the actions.

The Senate essentially endorsed this policy by voting for Mr. Gonzales to become Attorney General. I am shocked that so many Senators of the party I grew up in would do this.

Senator McCain, I cannot thank you enough for standing up for human rights and dignity. However, I am perplexed by the dichotomy: you fought to prevent torture, yet you voted to confirm Mr. Gonzales to enforce the very anti-torture statutes he subverted. I am likewise confused by how you can continue to support President Bush and his policies when he was party to such monstrous evil as expressed in the torture memos.

Senator, President Bush has betrayed our laws, the Constitution and every principle of human rights, and is now threatening to veto your amendment re-affirming the ban on torture. You are right to insist that no Americans, anywhere, torture any detainees; but as long as this President is in office, he will seek to find ways to torture people. Your amendment attacks the symptom, but does not attack the disease.

The scandal at Abu Ghraib has destroyed the reputation of our nation in the minds of the people of the Middle East, including the Iraqis we fought so hard to liberate. Likewise, the torture memos and the confirmation of Mr. Gonzales as Attorney General have done terrible harm to the reputation of the Republican Party. It is too late to win back voters like myself who are appalled by Bush's torture memos, but it is not too late to save the party's soul. Senator, this President has sought to torture people, in the violation of law, of treaties, and of the Eighth Amendment -- and this is an impeachable offense. Your work to prevent torture is a crucial step, but it is not enough. You must also demand that the House impeach President Bush, and that the Senate vote him out of office.

Every member of Congress promises to uphold the Constitution upon taking office. The removal of this President and this Administration is not only your moral duty, but your legal obligation. Otherwise, the President will simply refuse to enforce your amendment as he has refused to live by the other laws and treaties banning torture -- and he will continue to torture people.

Yours sincerely,

C. Colvin