Senate Republicans led a bipartisan effort to push legislation through regulating the treatment and interrogation of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody.
Then the Bush administration pushed back.
Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN), in his continuing role as designated Bush-Cheney lackey, derailed the bipartisan effort to set rules for the treatment of enemy prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other military detention camps by abruptly stopping debate on a $491 billion defense bill.
The unusual July 26 move came after several senators beat back an effort by Frist to block amendments setting standards for military-prisoner interrogations.
Frist jumped through hoops to derail the amendments after the White House indicated its intent to veto the defense spending bill if it contained such amendments, and after Vice President Dick Cheney met last Thursday with Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John Warner (R-VA), urging them to back off.
Rather that risk debate and (gasp) votes in favor of the amendments, Frist pulled the defense spending bill from consideration. The two amendments likely would have received substantial Democratic support and had a strong chance of passing in the Republican-controlled Senate.
By delaying action on the legislation, possibly into September, Frist put off potentially embarrassing defeats for the Bush Administration. But his failure to block the amendments outright — he needed 60 votes to cut off debate under Senate rules but mustered only 50 — means the Senate will have another opportunity to vote on military-detainee amendments later this year.
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Frist's last-ditch moves frustrated senators from both sides of the aisle, including McCain, a co-author of two of the three amendments under consideration.
"It just doesn't make sense to leave defense authorization," McCain was quoted by Knight-Ridder. "We need to make sure that every member of the Department of Defense understands the procedures that are being used in interrogation and we don't have a repetition of Abu Ghraib."
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Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
I can't see how Frist is going to benefit from this. The only thing to be accomplished by pulling the bill would be to find a way to incorporate some version of the amendments that was acceptable to the administration in the bill and thereby end-run McCain and his moderates. Just pulling the bill is useless, beceause it's not really going to go away. They have to pass a defense spending bill. It's not something that can be put off.
Dave
2 - Margaret Romao Toigo
Nor do I, Dave.
If Senator Frist has presidential aspirations, this sort of partisanship will hinder his efforts in that regard because it gives other partisans the opportunity and ammunition (if they can find an effective way to take advantage of it) to paint the Senator as being "pro-torture" as well as an obstructionist who doesn't care about our nation's defense.
I may not agree with Senator Frist on certain issues, but I do admire him and might even consider voting for him if he runs for President in 2008. However, in this instance, he does not appear to be thinking ahead.
3 - David R. Mark
Dave -- does this convince you how serious Bush and Cheney were about killing those amendments? You suggested otherwise on my earlier post on the subject.
4 - Dave Nalle
I'm not sure yet, David. I want to see how it works out. It seems unprofitable for Frist to sacrifice his own viability just to satisfy the administration. The bill has to come back. Let's see what happens to it then. This may well be part of a process of compromise and negotiation.
Dave
5 - David R. Mark
What compromise? Bush is against it. Frist followed Bush's wishes.
Yes, Bush and Frist may be over-ruled. At best, this gives them time to come up with a workable compromise. The alternative appears to be an embarrasing defeat in the Senate, forcing a veto.
6 - gonzo marx
sounds like Frist just earned his Presidential kneepads...again..
sounds like he wants that list of "Pioneer" donors
and , sorry to say..after his "diagnosis" from the videotape in the Schiavo fiasco..he loses all credibility, add to it the disasterous interview where he tried to claim you could contract HIV from kidding and sweat...
sounds to me like this is just another nail in his political "coffin"...
Excelsior!
7 - Dave Nalle
I'm a sad, twisted fellow, but what I think is really going on here is that Frist is in the position of having to force Bush to live up to promises Bush doesn't want to follow through on. Frist is the real point man for the extreme, religious right. He knows that Bush will cave and not veto these bills, so he's creating a situation where Bush loses that flexibility.
Dave
8 - gonzo marx
Mr Nalle sez...
*I'm a sad, twisted fellow,*
/agree
nuff said?
Excelsior!