Where Do The Democrats Go With Detainees Now?

Posted on September 22, 2006

The actual text of the detainee deal is is here and here.

The Abuse Can Continue. Senators won’t authorize torture, but they won’t prevent it, either.

But the senators who have fought to rein in the administration’s excesses — led by Sens. McCain, Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.) — failed to break Mr. Bush’s commitment to “alternative” methods that virtually every senior officer of the U.S. military regards as unreliable, counterproductive and dangerous for Americans who may be captured by hostile governments.

I did get a big laugh out of that line “virtually every senior officer of the U.S. military.”

The New York Times writes:

The Democrats have largely stood silent and allowed the trio of Republicans to do the lifting. It’s time for them to either try to fix this bill or delay it until after the election. The American people expect their leaders to clean up this mess without endangering U.S. troops, eviscerating American standards of justice, or further harming the nation’s severely damaged reputation.

So where do the Democrats go now? Do they stand with the Washington Post, New York Times and ACLU? Or do they run around and say “Bush caved to McCain” and swallow the Bill? I wonder if the Democrats feel they have been “violated” by McCain?