Charlie Pierce observes the Republicans’ vote yesterday to defeat the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities and concludes:

There are no “decent Republicans” any more, as yesterday’s vote demonstrated conclusively. Orrin Hatch, and Saxby Chambliss, and Huckleberry Closetcase are not “decent Republicans” just because they cast an atrocious vote to avoid being primaried by crazy people. (In the case of Chambliss, he also is not a “decent Republican” because of the indecent campaign he ran against Max Cleland, which gives Chambliss two moral offenses against the disabled in one career.) There are no “decent Republicans.” There are only empowered crackpots and their cowardly enablers.

Sounds right to me. The Republican party is now made up of small-minded little men and women (Kay Bailey Hutchison, on your way out the door you still can’t do the right thing?) who are terrified of their own base. You know what, Senators? There are other ways to earn a living besides being a US Senator. Hell, most of you are of retirement age anyway, and your predecessors have made sure your pensions are very generous.

Senator John Kerry said the following yesterday after the treaty’s defeat:

“Today the dysfunction hurt veterans and the disabled, and that’s unacceptable. This treaty was supported by every veterans group in America and Bob Dole made an inspiring and courageous personal journey back to the Senate to fight for it. It had bipartisan support, and it had the facts on its side, and yet for one ugly vote, none of that seemed to matter. We won’t give up on this and the Disabilities Treaty will pass because it’s the right thing to do, but today I understand better than ever before why Americans have such disdain for Congress and just how much must happen to fix the Senate so we can act on the real interests of our country.”

Far be it from me to steal from the classics, but I might be tempted to paraphrase Cato the Elder’s “Carthago delenda est,” replacing Carthago with “the right wing.”