TRAPPING THEMSELVES

Democrats walked into the trap that President Bush set for them yesterday by obstructing legislation that would create military tribunals and clarify interrogation techniques on the world’s worst terrorists. Here’s what Charles Hurt is reporting:

Senate Democrats are blocking Republicans from passing several of their top legislative priorities this week, including new border fencing, two of the Bush administration’s key counterterrorism programs and a drastic reduction in the estate tax. “The legislative corner they’ve painted themselves in is very difficult,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, (D-NV), told reporters yesterday.

Let’s hope that Mr. Reid’s quote is his attempt to spin the subject rather than his belief. I’d hate to think that a US Senator would be stupid enough to think that border enforcement is a losing proposition. I refuse to believe that Reid believes that voters would view establishing military tribunals and codifying what is and isn’t torture as a negative.

Democrats, while accusing Republicans of presiding over a “do-nothing” Congress, are slow-walking legislation but appear unlikely to kill outright any of the security measures as elections approach. Asked yesterday whether Democrats will take advantage of Senate rules that allow lawmakers to demand 30 hours of debate on each bill, Mr. Reid replied: “Well, unless there’s some agreement, we’re going to go ahead and do the 30 hours.”

Democrats never miss an opportunity to miss the point. When they return home to their districts and their states, more people will ask them where they stand on the most important issues of the day than will cheer them for bemoaning a “do nothing congress.” I’d suspect that voters are far more concerned with knowing if a legislator would give the Commander-in-Chief everything he needs to prevent future terrorist attacks than anything else. I’d also bet a tidy sum of cash that more people would view a border fence as a positive than who view it as negative.

It must be nice for President Bush and Mr. Rove to be able to know that Democrats will say and do some really stupid things. Here’s Ms. Pelosi’s official ‘contribution’ to the national security debate:

“It’s been five years since 9/11, yet not one person who has been directly responsible for 9/11 has been prosecuted and punished. There’s something wrong with this picture. And this bill today, because it does violence to the Constitution of the United States, also could produce convictions that may well be overturned because the bill does not heed the instructions from the Supreme Court, a Supreme Court friendly to this Administration, which has directed it to go back to the drawing board.”

Ms. Pelosi’s omitting the most important details from the Supreme Court ruling, that the President couldn’t establish military tribunals without legislation. It didn’t mandate trials for terrorists.

UPDATE: The House just passed the Military Commissions Act.

The House approved an administration-backed system of questioning and prosecuting terrorism suspects yesterday, setting clearer limits on CIA interrogation techniques but denying access to courts for detainees seeking to challenge their imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere. The 253 to 168 vote was a victory for President Bush and fellow Republicans. Bush had yielded some ground during weeks of negotiations, but he fully embraced the language that the House approved with support from 34 Democrats and all but seven Republicans.

This is a stinging defeat for Democrats, who continue to whine about the legislation’s provisions:

The bill “is really more about who we are as a people than it is about those who seek to harm us,” said House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD). “Defending America requires us to marshal the full range of our power: diplomatic and military, economic and moral. And when our moral standing is eroded, our international credibility is diminished as well.”

This isn’t the first time Democrats have complained about how our fighting the GWOT with everything that’s available is ruining “our international credibility.” If our choice is acceptance in the ‘world community’ or using techniques that the timid UN finds objectional, then I’m all for letting the world whine. Protecting America is our first priority.

The right way of defeating the enemy is to be more ruthless and barbaric than the enemy. We should resolve that our least important consideration in wartime is what our warrior ways “say about us as a people.”

Frankly, it really bothers me that Democratic politicians put a higher priority on getting along with the world community than they put on protecting the US. When did they take an oath to agree with the world community? Have they forgotten that they swore to protect and defend the US? This isn’t difficult stuff; it’s pretty straightforward.

But Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said: “This is how a nation loses its moral compass, its identity, its values and, eventually, its freedom…We rebelled against King George III for less restrictions on liberty than this.”

I can’t believe that Jerry Nadler said something this stupid. He’s saying that our not granting terrorists the same rights that we give criminals is as heinous as King George’s oppression of free people? This is what passes for thinking on the Democratic side of the aisle? Figuring out the thought process of a liberal is downright torturous. He’s essentially saying that passing this legislation puts us on a slippery slope to anarchy. To say that the Democrats’ thinking on this is breathtakingly alarming isn’t hyperbole.

Follow this link to read the Roll Call vote.