A Democrat explains his detainee vote: I just follow McCain's lead

There's sad and then there's pathetic. In the course of voting for the Bush administration's detainee bill Thursday, Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson crossed that line.

How could a Democrat -- let alone 12 of them -- vote for legislation that denies people we hold in custody even the basic right of challenging their custody in federal court? Nelson, who's running for reelection in a red state but still leads his Republican challenger by 23 percentage points, said he just follows the lead of John McCain:

"I think people respect Sen. McCain on these issues," Nelson tells the New York Times, "and I think he probably represents the views of a lot of people in Nebraska."