"the soft bigotry of low - and lowering - expectations"

Tom Schaller speaks volumes in today's Baltimore Sun about the shallowness and "moral cowardice" that has run amuck in Washington, and in Iraq:

According to the latest Gallup survey, Republican self-identification has declined nationally and in almost every American state. Why? The short answer is that President Bush's war of choice in Iraq has destroyed the partisan brand Republicans spent the past four decades building.

That brand was based upon four pillars: that Republicans are more trustworthy on defense and military issues; that they know when and where markets can replace or improve government; that they are more competent administrators of those functions government can't privatize; and, finally, that their public philosophy is imbued with moral authority. The war demolished all four claims.

Read on.

[h/t Digby]

Now here's a lowly state senator with real moral courage, Sen. Eric Oemig, showing them how it's done.