Romney calls for doubling Guantanamo population

If the first Republican presidential debate was a chance for the candidates to size up their rivals, and honor Reagan’s 11th Commandment, the second debate was a chance to forget the pleasantries and start throwing punches.

Gilmore accused some of his rivals of being “very liberal in characterizing themselves as conservatives, particularly on the issues of abortion and taxes and health care.” Romney blasted the “McCain-Kennedy” immigration reform measure (and the “McCain-Feingold” campaign finance law), which led McCain to blast Romney for once having been pro-choice. Giuliani and Ron Paul had a heated exchange over the causes of 9/11. Tancredo hates everyone: “There’s conversions on guns, conversions on abortion, conversions on immigration. It’s beginning to truly sound like a Baptist tent revival meeting here. I’m glad to see conversions. But I trust those conversions when they happen on the road to Damascus and not on the road to Des Moines.”

It’s mid May — by November these guys are literally going to be throwing chairs at one another.

The point of all these criticisms is obviously to undermine the candidates’ various rivals, but last night, it also seemed to be an attempt to show who was the “toughest” candidate. To help them along, Brit Hume posed this hypothetical scenario to the field:

“Three shopping centers near major U.S. cities have been hit by suicide bombers. Hundreds are dead, thousands injured. A fourth attack has been averted when the attackers were captured off the Florida coast and taken to Guantanamo Bay, where they are being questioned. U.S. intelligence believes that another larger attack is planned and could come at any time…. How aggressively would you interrogate those being held at Guantanamo Bay for information about where the next attack might be?”

Given the discussion of torture policy, the question seemed relevant, though a little fantastical. So, would the candidates permit torture? As Slate’s John Dickerson put it, “There seemed to be a competition to see who could say yes the fastest. Some candidates appeared ready to do the torturing themselves.”

It was a dejecting display.

During tonight’s presidential debates, candidates were asked whether they would support the use of waterboarding — a technique, defined as torture by the Justice Department, that simulates drowning and makes the subject “believe his death is imminent while ideally not causing permanent physical damage.”

Both former mayor Rudy Giuliani and Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) suggested they would support using the technique. Specifically asked about waterboarding, Giuliani said he would allow “every method [interrogators] could think of and I would support them in doing it.” Tancredo later added, “I’m looking for Jack Bauer,” referencing the television character who has used torture techniques such as suffocation and electrocution on prisoners.

The audience applauded loudly after both statements.

That last point shouldn’t go by unnoticed. These candidates not only endorsed torture in a high-profile, nationally-televised forum, but the crowd loved it. Romney not only endorsed the human-rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay, he said “[W]e ought to double Guantanamo,” in part so that detainees “don’t get access to lawyers they get when they’re on our soil.” This, too, garnered considerable applause.

As Digby explained, it was a reminder that as far as the Republican Party is concerned, this is still “all about the codpiece.”

These guys have just spent the last fifteen minutes of the debate trying to top each other on just how much torture they are willing to inflict. They sound like a bunch of psychotic 12 year olds, although considering the puerile nature of the “24″ question it’s not entirely their fault.

This debate is a window into what really drives the GOP id. The biggest applause lines were for faux tough guy Giuliani demanding Ron Paul take back his assertion that the terrorists don’t hate us for our freedom, macho man Huckabee talking about Edwards in a beauty parlor and the manly hunk Romney saying that he wants to double the number of prisoners in Guantanamo “where they can’t get lawyers.” There’s very little energy for that girly talk about Jesus or “the culture of life” or any of that BS that the pansy Bush ran on.

As for the one question on everyone’s mind — there were eight references to Reagan last night, down from 20 in the first debate. There was just one reference to George W. Bush (from Ron Paul, who mocked him for running on a “humble” foreign policy platform in 2000).