Day of Shame

It will be hard for future generations to pick a single Day of Shame, on which to mourn this shameful period in American politics and history, to review its hard lessons and to renew their commitment to ensuring that never again will America do these things: brandish cowardice as righteousness, use fear for political gain, make unnecessary war and continue it for bloody year after bloody year, and especially turn the clock back on civilization to conduct, justify and insist on brutality and torture that in the end yields nothing but emnity and shame.

Maybe they will choose the day the US invaded Iraq, or the day the first torture photos were revealed. But they might choose today as well, when the President of the United States made his second trip to Capitol Hill to lobby for a law allowing him to define what torture is, and when the US Senate voted to give him that power.

At least at this moment, that's the assumption, because a key vote on an amendment with the best chance of passing, and of denying Bush his power over international law and the US court system, failed in a close vote of the full Senate. Every Democrat but one voted against it, and five Republicans joined them. But it was not enough. And though some Democratic Senators--Kerry, Feingold, Leahy among the leaders--were aggressive and steadfast, in the end not even the Democrats could muster the courage to fillibuster the bill, purportedly for fear of being attacked by Republicans and their massive moneybags for being weak on terrorism.

Update: Senate Dem Leader Harry Reid issued this statement at the end of the Senate's day, stating that many of the worst provisions of the bill were put back into it after a so-called compromise was reached, and his belief that the resulting bill will be eventually found unconstitutional. Of course that will be many torture victims from now.

As Christy Hardy Smith writes at firedoglake, there are multiple reasons for the Bush push, all of them cowardly. Apart from whatever sad security the Bush cowards feel from torturing helpless people, there is the politics of election year--of appearing tough and castigating opponents of international outrages for being weak-willed, as if torturing someone you have imprisoned is brave, instead of as cowardly as it is useless in obtaining reliable information.

But I believe the third reason is really the strongest--Bush needs this law to keep himself and his buddies out of court, out of jail and maybe even out of this same Senate for an impeachment trial.

Smith quotes Jack Cafferty from CNN, and so will I, because this is a succinct summary of this ploy and its effects:


Cafferty: "President Bush is trying to pardon himself. Here’s the deal: Under the War Crimes Act, violations of the Geneva Conventions are felonies, in some cases punishable by death. When the Supreme Court ruled that the Geneva Convention applied to al Qaeda and Taliban detainees, President Bush and his boys were suddenly in big trouble. They’ve been working these prisoners over pretty good. In an effort to avoid possible prosecution they’re trying to cram this bill through Congress before the end of the week before Congress adjourns. The reason there’s such a rush to do this? If the Democrats get control of the House in November this kind of legislation probably wouldn’t pass.

You wanna know the real disgrace about what these people are about to do or are in the process of doing? Senator Bill Frist and Congressman Dennis Hastert and their Republican stooges apparently don’t see anything wrong with this. I really do wonder sometimes what we’re becoming in this country. "

There is really nothing more that needs to be said about how future generations will view this day. This is a day of Shame for the country and for everyone in it.