Bill Nelson votes for torture

Unbelievable. Unconscionable. And, at least for me, quite likely unforgivable.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), a conservative Democrat from Melbourne (which largely explains the conservatism -- trust me, I lived there), apparently gets off on torture:

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday questioned the continuing value of the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret interrogation program for terrorism suspects, suggesting that international condemnation and the obstacles it has created to criminal prosecution may outweigh its worth in gathering information.

The committee rejected by one vote a Democratic proposal that would essentially have cut money for the program by banning harsh interrogation techniques except in dire emergencies, a committee report revealed.

[...]

But the committee stopped short of using its budget authority to shut down the program. In a closed session on May 23, two Democrats, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Dianne Feinstein of California, proposed barring spending on interrogation techniques that go beyond the Army Field Manual, which bans physical pressure or pain. Under their proposal, the only exception would have been when the president determined “that an individual has information about a specific and imminent threat.”

The amendment failed when Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, joined all the Republicans in voting no.

So, let me get this straight. Whitehouse and Feinstein wanted to cut funding for CIA torture, but Nelson votes against his party and with all the Republics to say, essentially, that torture is cool.

This is absolutely appalling. I've supported Sen. Nelson and voted for him, despite the fact that I've known of his center-right proclivities for years, because it was important to me to have (and maintain) a Democratic majority in the Senate. (Of course, the fact that his opponent last year was Krazy Kitty Harris made my vote even more of a no-brainer.)

But this kind of vote leads me to believe that Sen. Nelson may have outserved his usefulness in the Senate. I trust that those of us with long memories -- and I include myself in that number -- will remember this vote (and others) in 2012, and we will seek a true progressive to be the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, regardless of whether or not Sen. Nelson opts to run for another term.

For shame, Sen. Nelson ... for shame.