Agree or disagree? It does appear that the supposed Republican rebels folded without being all that rebelious - at least on some supposedly key points.
And on the first point highlighted in the Publius post, well I've got to say I think it's more evidence that our president is a really belligerent coward. I'm not sure if higher ups might not still be (potentially) found at fault given the word "conspires" in that highlighted phrase - but given the placement of the commas, I bet they wouldn't be. And I've got to say on behalf of the people who are NOT carrying out "torture" (wink, wink) on behalf of the American government, Mr. President, if you are going to still leave the door still ajar (if only slightly so) to them being prosecuted for doing their job - you really ought to leave open the door to prosecute people who give the orders to engage in this program which you've called the most vital tool the country has to protect Americans (and 1) how fucked up is that? and 2) how deluded is the president? on second thought, don't answer that ...). To blame the people who engage in not-torture, when it's you and your cronies who are forcing them to do the not-torture ... yet again your love of your cronies and your opposition to personal accountability (when it comes to your friends) is crystal clear.
Posted by armand at September 22, 2006 11:22 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics | The Ever Shrinking ConstitutionWhile I'm trying to withhold final judgement until a few days have gone by and I can read a few more summaries of this, my initial take is much like yours: the GOP Senators (mostly) caved. It's good that accused terrorists will see sanitized versions of all the evidence against them (that is a legitimate good), but there seems to be enough wiggle room in the compromise language to allow Bush to continue doing whatever it is that he's doing. Additionally, the elephant in the room that no one is talking about is that whatever bill passes will specifically disallow any detainee to use actual US courts to protest their incarceration. In other words, they won't get any chance outside of a Bush-designed military-run (which isn't necessarily bad) tribunal. I'm very uncomfortable with that.
Posted by: baltar at September 22, 2006 01:23 PM | PERMALINK