Losing the "high ground" in Bush's war

It's hardly surprising that the Rove-led Republican party would endanger the lives and safety of the U.S. people to get a few votes. It's been their modus operandi and has kept them in power.

It's obvious that the push in Congress to give the Bush's torturers greater power was designed to distract attention from Iraq and allow Rove's boys to characterize the Democrats as soft on terrorism. According to Saturday's N. Y. Times,
"Republicans boasted that their top issue, terrorism, was dominating the political news for yet another day and overtaking Democratic criticisms of the war in Iraq."
But, as usual the administration failed to be sure everyone was on the same page. So they were surprised when three key Senators (McCain, Warner and Graham) turned on them (with the support of the forgotten Colin Powell) and actually acted out of principle - something the Rove-led party doesn't understand. The three senators opposed the Bush sponsored "legisation reinterpreting a provision of the Geneva Convention...that bars 'outrages upon personal dignity.'"
Powell is arguing that the U.S. is losing "the high ground in the war on terror." This opposition has again forced the Bush to shoot-off his mouth and show how he constantly lives up to Emerson's dictum that foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.

But then we are faced with a serious question: Why are the only people speaking out against Bush's torture and speaking up for the "moral high ground" all Republicans. The Times says: "Democrats are for the most part...content to allow Republicans to fight among themselves on the terrorism [torture?] question."
This, of course, isn't exactly true, some Democrats are speaking out but not as clearly as the three Republicans.
This is at least in part the result of the mass media obsession with stars and celebrities. Which, in effect, makes Sen. Clinton the only Democrat who can command the national stage; but she hasn't yet figured out which way the wind is blowing.
It seems as if Clinton and the Democrats are unfortunately willing to let politics trump morality.