Just three weeks ago there were three Republican senators who appeared to have the guts to stand up to their president and fight against his demands for legal authority to carry out torture in the name of our country. Mr. Barnes wrote about here, and Zippy commented that there might be an appearance of a compromise with the president, but there will be no compromise. The Republicans will give the president what he wants, no matter how despicable it is.
Two weeks ago, Bush said:
THE PRESIDENT: This debate is occurring because of the Supreme Court’s ruling that said that we must conduct ourselves under the Common Article III of the Geneva Convention. And that Common Article III says that there will be no outrages upon human dignity. It’s very vague. What does that mean, “outrages upon human dignity”? That’s a statement that is wide open to interpretation. And what I’m proposing is that there be clarity in the law so that our professionals will have no doubt that that which they are doing is legal. You know, it’s — and so the piece of legislation I sent up there provides our professionals that which is needed to go forward.
I read it and I saw it on TV and it was surreal. An American president was telling the world that he would like to continue with his “program” that allows U.S. agents to torture its prisoners. It was shameful. It was unbelievable.
That was a very bad day in the history of our country.
Today is worse. It has got to be one of the worst days ever in the history of the United States of America.
The Senate today rejected an amendment to a bill creating a new system for interrogating and trying terror suspects that would have guaranteed such suspects access to the courts to challenge their imprisonment.
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Underscoring the political stakes involved, White House spokesman Tony Snow said today that President Bush will emphasize Democratic opposition to the bill in campaign appearances.
“He’ll be citing some of the comments that members of the Democratic leadership have made in recent days about what they think is necessary for winning the war on terror.”
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The amendment introduced by Mr. Specter would have guaranteed to non-American citizens who are held as unlawful enemy combatants the right to appeal their detention in federal court. The bill now contains no such guarantee.
“What this bill would do is take our civilization back 900 years,” to before the adoption of the writ of habeus corpus in medieval England, Senator Specter said.
And late this afternoon, Congress passed a bill that gives the president the authority to torture prisoners and denies them due process to challenge their detainment.
It’s unbelievable, but it happened. Go here to see how your senators voted today, and here to see how your representatives voted yesterday. If they voted “Yea” then give them hell.
Bush, Cheney, Rove and Company will try and portray the Democrats as soft on terrorism because they voted against the bill. Imagine that: Voting against the authorization of torture is a political liability. If the public falls for that, there is no hope for our country. The American experiment will officially be over.
Next post will be about what this is really all about: Keeping Bush out of jail.
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