Attention F. James Sensenbrenner Jr.”: far be it for me to lecture you on democracy– you are professional politician— but you and any who defend what you did shouldn’t lecture Iraqis or anyone else about democracy:
After repeated criticism of the Bush administration, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee yesterday gaveled a hearing to a close and walked out while Democrats continued to testify — but with their microphones shut off.
What adjectives come to mind?
How about: graceless…undemocratic…autocratic…deserving of contempt by all Democrats, Republicans and independents who not-unmistakenly thought they were taught that in our democracy you allow the opposition to speak their peace, even if you totally disagree with it. MORE:
The hearing’s announced topic was the USA Patriot Act, which granted broad new powers to federal law enforcement after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Republicans had presented several witnesses at earlier hearings who supported the administration’s call for reauthorizing the legislation.
But yesterday, when four witnesses handpicked by the Democrats launched into a broad denunciations of President Bush’s war on terrorism and the condition of detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) showed his pique.
He urged witnesses to “wrap it up” and repeatedly told committee members that their time for questioning had expired.
“We ought to stick to the subject,” the chairman scolded at the end. “The Patriot Act has nothing to do with Guantanamo Bay. The Patriot Act has nothing to do with enemy combatants. The Patriot Act has nothing to do with indefinite detentions.”
“Will the gentleman yield?” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) asked.
“No, I will not yield,” replied Sensenbrenner, 61, the heir to a paper fortune who is known for a brusque insistence on decorum. He completed his reproof of the witnesses and left the Rayburn House Office Building hearing room amid a cacophony of protests from Democrats seeking to be recognized.
Democrats charged that the episode was another example of Republicans abusing their control of Congress and trying to stifle dissent over Bush’s approach to counterterrorism. During the two-hour hearing, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) accused Amnesty International of endangering U.S. soldiers because a top official of the group had called the prison at Guantanamo Bay a “gulag.” Sensenbrenner did not allow a group official who was testifying, Chip Pitts, chairman of Amnesty International USA, to respond until Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) raised a “point of decency.”
The Amnesty International issue (and we have criticized the group on this site for their comments) is another issue. And, yes, the chairman may have been right that Guantamo was another issue for another day (people can debate that).
His action — and attitude — goes to the heart of democracy: simply walking off with a gavel and shutting off the mike so the opposition can’t be heard doesn’t cut it. An elected leader who does that doesn’t deserve to be elected again. And neither do those who support him in what clearly is a violation of the basic way American democracy is supposed to work. At the least, an apology is in order.
PS: From a purely political point of view, this was stupifyingly dumb. We can’t come up with any other word. All the talk about Guantamo Bay and even the fact it came up would not have merited much of a story if he had just let it go on. But by making a scene and acting like the House is in a Banana Republic Sensenbrenner gave his foes lots of high-profile publicity and will provoke lots of outrage from people who may even agree with him that Guantanamo Bay was straying off the designated topic under discussion.
You’d think a guy who made his fortune in paper would know how to successfully fold.
UPDATE: Wonkette’s Greg Beato says Sensenbrenner is “wary of free speech, and he could totally give Judge Judy a run for her money. Seriously, at this morning’s Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Patriot Act, he was treating colleagues and witnesses like they were small-claims doofuses arguing over some $50 deal gone awry — no one could get a word in edgewise.”And, he notes:
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz says Sensenbrenner violated the Rules of the House when he ended the meeting abruptly and unilaterally. Sensenbrenner seemed unconcerned with any breach he may have committed, however, and left the room with a swagger in his step and a triumphant bounce in his magnificent chin.
UPDATE II: Crooks and Liars has video.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.