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Posted on 07/12/2006 3:38:13 PM PDT by vikingd00d
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham may have a future as a fiction writer.
He's being accused of fabricating a Senate debate and sending it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which didn't think much of the work. The high court dismissed it.
At issue is an account of an exchange that Sens. Graham, R-S.C., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., wrote last year to be inserted into the Congressional Record.
It details what the two lawmakers purported was part of the Senate's debate over why terror detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should not be tried in civilian U.S. courts.
The actual discussion Graham and Kyl inserted in the Record never took place.
But their comments, written more than a month after the actual debate, became part of the terror case filing that went to the Supreme Court.
Reached Tuesday in Washington, Graham said he did nothing improper, contending that senators file amended speeches in debates all the time.
"That's what you do," he said. "You enter it on the record as if it were part of the debate."
Critics, meanwhile, called the Graham-Kyl account unethical.
John Dean, former counsel to President Richard Nixon, writing in the online legal journal FindLaw last week, said he had not seen "so blatant a ploy, or abuse of power, since Nixon's reign."
He called their effort "a bogus colloquy."
Others have said it's not so much that the record was amended but that it was done so in such an ornate fashion.
The Graham-Kyl script supported the Bush administration's legal contention that terror suspects should not be afforded courtroom rights under U.S. law.
That stance was rejected last month after the Supreme Court invalidated the government's system of military trials and, instead, ruled that the detainees must be treated according to international standards.
The case was known as the "Hamdan decision," named for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, and a Guantanamo detainee.
Graham and Kyl submitted their Senate account in a "friend of the court" brief, in which the two lawmakers wanted to back the White House on keeping the military trial option.
The two attempted to make the dialogue - added to the Dec. 21, 2005, record - appear real.
Kyl, is quoted at one point as saying, "Mr. President, I see that we are nearing the end of our allotted time."
In another instance, Graham and Kyl inserted Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas in the fabricated Senate floor discussion, saying "If I might interrupt," according to published accounts of the comments.
The issue at hand was the Bush administration's contention that the Detainee Treatment Act disallowed the federal courts oversight of detainees attempting to challenge the government.
The Bush position, and that advanced by Graham and Kyl's comments, was to show that the law passed by Congress was meant to apply to all detainees held by the United States, retroactively. Democrats, meanwhile, said that wasn't the case.
The insertion of the added comments was noted and rejected by the court.
Graham said the criticism of his addition was overblown and that senators often insert scripted remarks.
"I know what I've done. I've done it before and I'll do it again," he said.
As for Dean's criticism: "John Dean speaks for himself in terms of his character and his ethics," Graham said.
Web extras
Read the U. S. Supreme Court ruling, a transcript of arguments and briefs filed in the detainee case at www.charleston.net/webextras
Reach Schuyler Kropf at skropf@postandcourier.com or 937-5551.
Sheriff McCains... Barney Fife.
Lindsey Graham is the Senate's own JAG.
He stabbed the Republican majority in the back during the impeachment trial of the "Former Occupant of the Oval Office, 1993-2001". There was REAL proof of perjury, one of the charges brought up, and Sen. Graham just blithely dismissed it.
And since then, Sen. Graham has not further ingratiated himself with the patriotic Americans in this country.
Maybe he does meet the definition of "conservative". But there are a few gray areas in the degree of his dedication to the rule of law.
You'll want to read this.
South Carolina is supposed to be a conservative Southern state. What the heck is this twinkle toes doing in the US Senate?
InSanes' gay poodle.
The comments they "made up" were intended to show that the law passed by Congress was meant to apply to all detainees held by the United States, retroactively.
This seems deceptive. Are there any rules on entering comments into the record?
Don't worry folks, we here in South Carolina have had enough of ole Linsey Light Shoes...
Sophomoric ad hominem comments don't contribute to the debate and just make you look foolish.
He certainly seems to lack respect for the Senate and, consequently, the rest of us....
What part is inaccurate? SCOTUS ruled that detainees were to be treated under Geneva Convention rules which is an international standard.
"He seems to lack respect...for the rest of us."
I know firsthand. Graham's office does not answer critical emails or letters, and when I called his office to protest the `Gang of Fourteen', his staffer began yelling at me and demanded my full name and address. Twice.
This is an arrogant little man.
FWIW I'm waiting for 2 "we'll get back to you" on the Senate Immigration Bill and the selection of the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee."Fool me once shame on you".Never Again! The guy has little people disease.A real twit!
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