Dems ditch Habe fight
By Libby
How irritating. Thanks to everyone who contacted their Congress creatures but it seems it was to no avail. The Democratic party just blew a golden opportunity to restore some meaning into the rule of law and restore habeas corpus.
How digusting. This is so obviously a tactic to delay taking any meaningful action to hold the White House and the GOP accountable for destroying habe in the first place and to avoid taking any constructive steps to restoring it that might require political courage. If we wanted political theater, we would have elected the Actor's Guild to office. The Dems didn't just fail our country in this sidestep, they failed the trust of the voters who elected them in good faith based on their promise to address this issue at the earliest opportunity.
The Democrats had better deliver a strong bill and a good fight on this one immediately. If they insist on theatrics over substantive action, they may well find in 08 it will be another SAG member that moves into 1600 Penn Ave after all.
[thanks to The Blog Report for the link]
How irritating. Thanks to everyone who contacted their Congress creatures but it seems it was to no avail. The Democratic party just blew a golden opportunity to restore some meaning into the rule of law and restore habeas corpus.
The new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee dealt a blow to the human-rights community by failing to include provisions to overhaul GOP legislation governing military tribunals in the 2008 defense authorization bill. ...Skelton said he has prepared separate legislation and is planning to work with Democratic leadership, the Judiciary Committee and members of the Armed Services panel to bring a stand-alone bill to the floor.I call bullshit on that. Why the hell should the Democrats care if Bush vetos it? Then the onus is on him for failing to allow the greater bill to pass on its merits and it would make it clear he will veto anything that requires him to follow the law, no matter what the cost. And what the hell good will a stand alone bill do on those grounds? He'll just veto that too and he'll be able to spin it as an anti-terrorist move without further explanation.
...Concerns over a potential presidential veto of the defense authorization bill — which contains critical policies for the Pentagon — as well as a partisan split in the committee prompted Skelton to leave it to Democratic leadership to take up the issue. Congress has passed a defense authorization bill every year for the last 47 years.
How digusting. This is so obviously a tactic to delay taking any meaningful action to hold the White House and the GOP accountable for destroying habe in the first place and to avoid taking any constructive steps to restoring it that might require political courage. If we wanted political theater, we would have elected the Actor's Guild to office. The Dems didn't just fail our country in this sidestep, they failed the trust of the voters who elected them in good faith based on their promise to address this issue at the earliest opportunity.
The Democrats had better deliver a strong bill and a good fight on this one immediately. If they insist on theatrics over substantive action, they may well find in 08 it will be another SAG member that moves into 1600 Penn Ave after all.
[thanks to The Blog Report for the link]
Labels: Congress, legislation, politics, rule of law
posted by Libby Spencer at 10:26 AM
4 Comments:
Habeas restoration stands no chance with BushCo presidency (veto) & filibustering GOP in the Senate. It would merely be a symbolic vote... so throw it in at another time. Habeas restoration stands a chance (hopefully) in 08 with a Democratic presidency.
It doesn't matter if they win anon. What matters is they fight.
No, Libby, what matters is they fight smart. That seems to be what they're doing. Instead of tacking yet another amendment to the defense bill, they're making the habaes issue into it's own bill. That way Republicans will have to vote against it specifically and not be able to hide behind the "I voted against a pork laden bill" defense.
I'd be more willing to buy that argument if I didn't think they're using this as an excuse not to fight at all. But I'll be happy to eat those words if they come up with a stand alone bill in the relatively near future.
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