The Carpetbagger Report relayed an item about Senator Arlen Specter working to undo the damage of allowing the reduction in Habeas Corpus protection.
“When the Military Commissions Act, which among other things suspended habeas corpus for suspected terrorists, went to the Senate floor in September, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) voiced some relatively passive concerns. He offered an amendment that would have protected habeas, which was defeated. Specter didn’t seem terribly concerned about the lack of his amendment — because he voted for the MCA anyway.
During arguments on the Senate floor, however, Specter seemed to realize the obvious legal problems with the bill. He even told his colleagues, “Surely as we are standing here, if this bill is passed and habeas corpus is stricken, we’ll be back on this floor again� after the courts strike the legislation down.
As it turns out, we may not have to wait for the judiciary; Specter is backing a bi-partisan measure to undo some of what he and other Senate Republicans did.
…A couple of weeks ago, the New Yorker ran a Toobin piece suggesting that Specter believed going along with legislation suspending habeas was his way of making sure he could remain the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee if Republicans held onto their majority.
Of course, the GOP is now in the minority, and with no career motivations in mind, Specter can follow his conscience, at least on this.
Isn’t it interesting how life-and-death decisions are made in Government.
Born 1950, Married, Living in Austin Texas, Semi
Retired Small Business owner and investor. My political interest
evolved out of his business experience that the best decisions come out of an objective gathering of information and a pragmatic consideration of costs and benefits. I am interested in promoting Centrist candidates and Policies. My posts are mostly about people and policies that I believe are part of the solution rather the problem.