Whither habeas corpus?
A lot of talk about habeas corpus today. And the fact that the Congress and the President did an ignoble thing when they took it away. The New York Times and the Washington Post urge the Democrats in Congress to do what they said they'd do if they won: restore habeas corpus, which was trampled by the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Which was signed by 12 Democratic Senators, not just Republicans.
Glenn Greenwald goes at the Democrats pretty hard for letting the bill get passed in the first place, and stalling on doing something about it now. Like right now:
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 is, without question, the single worst law enacted during the Bush presidency, and is one of the most destructive laws passed in the last several decades. It is not merely a bad law. It vests in the President the power to detain people indefinitely with no meaningful opportunity to contest the government's accusations. That is the very power the Founders sought first and foremost to prohibit.
The fact the Democrats let this law pass with nary a whimper is embarrassing to me as a Democrat. One of the Democratic senators who voted for the MCA is from my home state. I called and asked her (or the intern that answered the phone) not to vote for it. But she did. So instead of voting for her in her re-election bid, I wrote in Ted Nugent as my candidate for Senate instead.
Thus began my long journey to see Ted Nugent elected as president. Just kidding.
