Posted on 01/05/2006 4:12:39 PM PST by new yorker 77
Reject assertion he has right to waive rules to protect US security
WASHINGTON -- Three key Republican senators yesterday condemned President Bush's assertion that his powers as commander in chief give him the authority to bypass a new law restricting the use of torture when interrogating detainees.
John W. Warner Jr., a Virginia Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, issued a joint statement rejecting Bush's assertion that he can waive the restrictions on the use of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment against detainees to protect national security.
''We believe the president understands Congress's intent in passing, by very large majorities, legislation governing the treatment of detainees," the senators said. ''The Congress declined when asked by administration officials to include a presidential waiver of the restrictions included in our legislation. Our committee intends through strict oversight to monitor the administration's implementation of the new law."
Separately, the third primary sponsor of the detainee treatment law, Senator Lindsey O. Graham, Republican of South Carolina, told the Globe in a phone interview that he agreed with everything McCain and Warner said ''and would go a little bit further."
''I do not believe that any political figure in the country has the ability to set aside any . . . law of armed conflict that we have adopted or treaties that we have ratified," Graham said. ''If we go down that road, it will cause great problems for our troops in future conflicts because [nothing] is to prevent other nations' leaders from doing the same."
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(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Listening to these three egotistical morons should be considered torture.
OMG ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't keep me in suspense. What did Joe(there's a dead girl in my office and but I don't know how that happened)Scarborough have to offer?
What we have here is a prime example of folie a deux (a rare paranoid psychosis shared by two people in which the weaker one usually adopts the delusional system of the stronger). Apparently McShame's illness of the ego is contagious and I pray people of SC grow as tired of it as I am.
Yes, and he wants to be Vice-President under McLame!
Push come to shove, do the laws of the United States even apply to these men?
Then he should know that as such he only applied the UCMJ, which has does not assign rights to the likes of these detainees.
The article left out some key events:
"After issuing the signing statement, Bush announced the replacement of Harry Reid and installed Joe Lieberman as the new Senate Minority Leader and then he delivered 10,000 traffic cases to the United States Supreme Court and ordered their immediate review."
My point?
The Constitution dictates the powers and duties of the President, not Congress, and not the USSC. Bush was just staking out his territory and reminding 'em of the "way things are". :)
LOL ... does anybody really think that Congress REALLY wants a final judgement on this issue? They will never press it. In the future, Congressmen will point at the law that they have written and blow hot air, Bush and future Presidents will shrug at it and do whatever Commander-in-Chiefs in war have to do, anyway, and the USSC will be happy to sit on the sidelines.
yea, I was basically just laughing at the McCain picture. :D
Get this...the way Chrissy went on, later in the show, to rationalize WHY the Republicans should all be run out of town about this...BUT, the dems don't have to have any punishment is this:
The Republicans are the MAJORITY, therefore they are ones reponsible for any and all wrongdoing in both houses of Congress...I kid you not, and he had Norah O'Donnell sitting there laughing with him about that.
JOe and Chrissy were discussing the Abramhoff "scandal"...and Chrissy was asking for Joe's opinion, since Joe WAS a rep.
Joe told of his dealings with a peanut lobby..and how, when they asked him to vote for more subsidies, he told them he didn't believe in subsidies..and wouldn't...THEN, the day of the vote...an aide in his office told him that the same lobby had dropped off an envelope with $10,000 in it.
He told Chrissy that the money didn't change his mind or vote...(when I heard him tell this story a few years ago...he went on to say that he KEPT the money)...tonight he didn't tell that part.
Also...he and Chrissy were making fun of Delay and Ney, because they are from MIDDLE AMERICA...and aren't rich..
Just a total smear job by Joe...and never ONCE mentioned that there are just as many DEMS on the list of congresscritters that have gotten contributions from Jack.
I was not aware that was a rule.
Why oh why can't they make an ultimate Three Stooges DVD package with all the episodes??
Scarborough Country: "No Ratings Expected, Only Selling Out Allowed"
Well, it's time for Arizona, Virginia and South Carolina to do some blasting then. Blast these three idiots outta office. Are you listening voters?????
Good for Bush! I didn't know he had done this. Does anyone know a Republican who backs McVain for Presidency.
Yeppers...he goes from a failed US Rep. to a failed television host...on the WORST network.
BUT, I am so NOT amused by supposed GOP party members, who seem to go out of their WAY to slam Bush and other members of Bush's Administration.
BTW...on AirAmerica tonight, Randi Rhodes is talking about the money that Bush is giving back that he got from Abramhoff...saying that Bush is lying when he says he doesn't know Jack A.
She said that supposedly Abramhoff has been to three Hanukkah celebrations at the White House...and that the reason that Bush isn't admitting that he knows him...is because Bush doesn't want anyone to know that he celebrates holidays with JEWS.
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