I used to have cordial relations with Harry Reid’s office. That ended abruptly on May 20th, 2009. I heard it first hand from his office. But, fuck them. I was right and they were wrong. Reid hasn’t done too many things to piss me off since then, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven him or his folks have forgiven me. But if we’re ever going to break bread again, this is a start.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is blocking the Defense authorization bill from floor consideration because of provisions that would keep the Guantánamo Bay prison camp in business, prompting Republican protest.
Reid sent a letter to Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the panel’s ranking Republican, protesting the bill’s language related to terrorist detainees.
The legislation, which was voted out of committee with a strong bipartisan majority, would authorize indefinite detention of suspected terrorists, require mandatory military custody of suspected terrorists and put stringent restrictions on the transfer of detainees to the civilian court system.
Reid says he will not bring the bill to the Senate floor unless those provisions are dropped or modified, citing President Obama’s opposition to the language.
“I do not intend to bring this bill to the floor until concerns regarding the bill’s detainee provisions are resolved,” Reid wrote in the Oct. 4 letter. “The Obama administration and several of our Senate colleagues have expressed serious concerns about the implications of the detainee provisions included in the legislation,” Reid wrote.
Over two years ago, Harry Reid retracted his balls, cut, and ran in the face of ridiculous fear mongering rhetoric from the right. Now he’s trying to do what he should have done back then. He should have chastised his caucus and questioned their courage and given them not one inch of cover for their refusal to have the president’s back on Gitmo. But if he redeems himself, I’ll be in the front of the parade cheering his resolve and effectiveness.
Here’s Mitch McConnell, in his usual taunting mode:
“My request to the majority leader would be to move to the National Defense Authorization Act at the soonest possible moment to allow the Senate to debate and amend the bill,” McConnell said.
“If there are members on the other side who support the White House effort to bring unlawful enemy combatants into the United States for purposes of detention and civilian trial, the Senate can debate that matter during consideration of the bill,” he added.
There is not enough contempt in the world to explain how I feel about people who are afraid to house terrorist suspects in U.S. prisons or put them on trial.
