I just came back from a house party in Worcester for Maura Healey.  Jacquelyn Wells already has some pictures posted on Facebook.

I was inclined to vote for Maura Healey because I knew of her experience in the Attorney General’s office, and because I am not so deep into Massachusetts politics that I knew much about her opponent.  Since I had been so focused on the Governor’s race up till now, I decided it was time to find out more about the candidates for the other offices.  So I jumped at the chance to meet a candidate for Attorney General when Jacquelyn invited me.

I must say that I was duly impressed by Maura Healey.  She had a depth of experience and firm convictions on a wide range of issues that the Attorney General could influence – and there aren’t many issues that the Attorney General does not get involved in.  Not only  does she have experience as an individual lawyer, but she has the experience of managing about half the staff in the current Attorney General’s office.  She has a lot of energy and a lot of issues that she wants to tackle.  As an experienced manager, she knows that she doesn’t do this all by herself.  She has resources that she manages to accomplish the goals she has set forth.

I didn’t find it necessary to push myself to get to talk to her personally, and  the questions I had prepared were already adequately answered.  However, she came over to me to introduce herself and ask me about myself.  We had a very good conversation.

One of the points that I made was that frequently politicians forget that a very important part of their job is to bring the voter along with her on issues where some explaining needed to be done to get people to understand the value in whatever goal she was trying to accomplish.  I was impressed by the way she had spoken to us indicating the fact that she seemed to get this concept very well.  In our one-on-one conversation, she mentioned that one way she would work with the legislature, for instance, was to first go to the public, and then have the public exert the influence on the legislature to get something done.  In a way, the public would give the politician cover to make it politically safe to do the right thing. She also pointed out in her fight to overturn the Defense Of Marriage Act, this process of moving public sentiment was one of the keys to success.

It was at that point, that I knew for sure that she really got it.  I made the same type of judgment about Elizabeth Warren, and I am very happy with the way that turned out.  With Maura Healey as Attorney General, a strong, progressive governor,  and a strong, progressive Congressional delegation, Massachusetts has the prospect of helping to turn this country around for the better.

The Hill has the article GOP: Send Benghazi suspect to Gitmo.

Now that we seem to have captured a suspect in the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, we have insane reactions from Republicans. I’ll give you the most temperate comment I have heard from a certain gang of clowns in our Congress. This is Lindsey Graham being quoted.

Graham urged that the military be allowed to interrogate him before he was read Miranda rights.

“We should have some quality time with this guy, weeks and months,” said Graham. “Don’t torture him, but have some quality time with him.”

What are we to make of calls to send him to the torture chamber, but just don’t torture him. Why is Lindsey Graham so afraid of what could happen in the regular “Justice” system?

How far do we have to travel down this road before the citizens of this country can rise up and make their voices heard that such talk by a politician will just not be tolerated come election time?

Some people might respond to my blog post that nobody suspected of doing what this detainee is suspected of doing should be protected by the once cherished principles of our law. These people will be giving sad testimony to how far we have already traveled down the road to utter depravity.

If we don’t start making it perfectly clear that such talk is not acceptable in this country, it might be too late when we finally do wake up to the danger.