The Missing Grownup Republicans Stay Missing

Steve Clemons writes:

The Washington Note : There are many thoughtful, fair-minded, and deeply concerned senior Bush administration Republicans who think that the administration must turn itself around and get out of the "thumb in their eye" national security positions it has taken... believe that there have been huge public relations and policy disasters surrounding Guantanamo, the management of accountability after Abu Ghraib, the rendition of prisoners abroad, the administration's battle with John McCain over torture policy, and even the NSA intercepts.... This person is introspective and self-critical about these problems and wants to fix them. He wants to address the problem and to reconnect to real debates. This is exactly the right strategy -- and this writer and pundit is more than happy to help those inside the Bush administration try to get to more constructive ground than that on which the administration currently stands.

If so, then where the *&^%$#&(&! have they been for the past five years?

If there were even six grownup Republicans in the Senate, they would issue a joint statement calling for the withdrawal of Alito's nomination on the grounds that when the executive branch is incompetent is not the time to put an executive branch royalist on the supreme court.