Defense Bill Shelved Amid Torture Amendment Controversy
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, General Politics, Legislation, The War On TerrorismSenate Republicans tried to vote for cloture, which would have essentially killed McCain and Graham’s “torture limit” amendments. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
From The Washington Times:
Senate Republican leaders pulled the plug on the defense bill yesterday, rather than face a host of votes on base closings, veterans benefits and the administration’s detainee policy that could have embarrassed President Bush.[...]
But then the entire bill came to a halt when Republicans pushed a cloture vote, which would have limited debate and made the contentious amendments out of order. The 50-48 vote to end debate fell 10 votes short of the 60 needed, and rather than allow a showdown with the president, Republican leaders withdrew the bill and went instead to a measure protecting gun manufacturers from lawsuits.
[...]
Seven Republicans joined 40 Democrats and one independent in voting against cloture. They said they wanted to make sure the Senate addresses their issues, and the defense bill is their best chance.
One of the biggest fights is over American policy toward detainees from the war on terror. The policy now is set by the administration, but many members of Congress have become uneasy about that, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, had offered an amendment to have Congress authorize the conditions for detaining “enemy combatants.”
“I’m trying to make sure Congress gets on the same sheet of music as the administration,” he said.
Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, has another amendment that would make Congress set the conditions and treatment of detainees. Both men voted against cloture, which automatically would have killed their amendments.
Again, does anybody have a problem with Senate Republicans trying to completely override debate about one of the most important bills that the Senate has to vote on? I think that’s incredibly irresponsible, and I still can’t understand why this Administration wants the “Have our cake and eat it too” approach to torture.
See, this is the thing people. They strongly denounced those who were sent to jail for being involved at Abu Ghraib, and yet they won’t allow their own policy to be officially, “We will not use the tactics we convicted people for using at Abu Ghraib.”
There’s a big logic gap there and I hope they close it soon. Otherwise we risk losing even more credibility with our struggle against terror.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 28th, 2005 and is filed under Foreign Policy, General Politics, Legislation, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
