OK, I’ll be honest. I got myself a serious Dodd/FISA jones going right now, so I just re-read his full speech from Friday for the umpteenth time in anticipation of him speaking again from the floor shortly. Here’s another passage that I haven’t yet pulled out, but think is a phenomenally sharp assessment of where we are and why we need clear leadership today.

No, Mr. President—we can’t go back. We can’t un-pass the Military Commissions Act. We can’t un-destroy the CIA’s interrogation tapes. We can’t un-speak Alberto Gonzales’s disgraceful testimony. We can’t un-torture Maher Arar. We can’t un-do all that this administration has done in the last six years for the cause of lawlessness and fear.

But we can do this. We can vote down this immunity. We can grab hold of the one thread left to us, and pull until the whole garment unravels. We can start here.

Why not here?

Why not today?

I urge—I strongly urge—my colleagues to oppose retroactive immunity.

I’ll be honest again: re-reading this speech and watching everything Senator Dodd has done since dropping out of the presidential campaign and returning to the Senate makes me deeply sorry that his campaign never gained traction. If this isn’t the perfect example of the clarity and leadership we need today, I don’t know what is.