Hastert Stalls House Response to McCain Bill
by TChris
The Senate, defying the White House, overwhelmingly passed Sen. John McCain’s bill to prohibit the abuse of detainees. That language is not in the House version of the military spending package to which it was attached in the Senate, so House and Senate conferees will need to decide whether to include it in the version that goes to the president. Vice President Cheney’s effort to persuade McCain to soften the bill’s language went nowhere.
House Democrats planned to introduce a motion that would instruct House conferees to adopt McCain’s language. They’ve been stymied by Speaker Dennis Hastert’s refusal to appoint the conferees. Now why would Hastert be dragging his feet?
Democrats on Thursday were quick to accuse Mr. Hastert, a close friend and political ally of Mr. Cheney, of taking steps to postpone a vote that would embarrass the vice president at a time when his former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., is under indictment in the C.I.A. leak case. "At a time when we should be protecting American service men and women from torture and improving our sullied international reputation, the majority in the House is more interested in protecting the vice president and this administration from embarrassment," said Representative Ellen O. Tauscher, a California Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
House Republicans have often been unconcerned about what Democrats think, but McCain’s bill enjoyed bipartisan support in the Senate and has attracted some Republican support in the House.
Last week, 15 House Republicans wrote Representative C. W. Bill Young, a Florida Republican who heads the Appropriations Committee, in support of Mr. McCain's provision. The lawmakers said that they strongly endorsed Mr. Bush's efforts to defeat terrorism, but that the McCain provision would aid American troops in the field without interfering with presidential prerogatives. "We believe the antitorture provisions are vital to protecting American service members in the field both now and in the future," they wrote on Oct. 27.
Hastert should realize that protecting Cheney from an awkward legislative defeat is less important than affirming the country’s commitment to the humane treatment of prisoners. Isn’t it more important to save the country from continuing international embarrassment than it is to save Cheney from another political embarrassment?
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