Oh, say, do you remember how the Dems huffed and puffed when President Bush warned before the midterms that “The terrorists win and America loses” if the Dems prevailed?

Well, the Dems triumphed and the terrorists may indeed win–the “restoration of habeas corpus rights for enemy combatants:”

A battle is shaping up between Democrats and the White House over the Military Commissions Act, signed into law last month by President George W. Bush.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is expected to take over as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and The (Calif.) Daily Journal reports that Leahy is drafting a bill to undo portions of the new law in an effort to restore habeas corpus rights for enemy combatants.

A spokeswoman for Leahy told the newspaper the bill would be intended to repeal portions of the law that prevent some detainees from pursuing federal court challenges to the government’s authority to hold them indefinitely.

Spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler told the newspaper the goal is to “try and do something to reverse the damage.”

Scott L. Silliman, Director of the Center for Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University School of Law, told the newspaper an attempt to amend the law could set up a partisan showdown in Congress, and possibly a presidential veto.

I can hear the cheers from Gitmo.

Warner Todd Huston: “How nice of Leahy to ‘restore’ something they never had in the first place!”

Flashback: Here’s Leahy likening America to the Taliban and the reign of the Saddam Hussein regime as a result of the Military Commissions Act.

Flashback: Here’s the list of YEA votes from the roll call on the bill. Note the D’s:

Flashback: Background on the MCA and habeas corpus here and here.

comments (0)   trackbacks (9)