UNBELIEVABLE! More shenanigans in the House. Seems like the Republicans have REVOTED on the Bush Torture Bill and narrowly passed it having waited until two Dems were out of the room. Goodbye democracy, it was nice while it lasted.
LINK: BREAKING: TPMMuckraker.com - House Judiciary Reconsiders, Backs Bush Torture Bill, By Justin Rood - September 20, 2006, 5:28 PM
The House Judiciary Committee just reversed itself, calling a re-vote and passing a controversial detainee treatment bill that has White House backing, according to House sources.
Earlier today, the panel had voted down the measure, 18-17, with three members not voting. The re-vote swung the tally to 20-18 in favor of the bill.
Update: WSJ's Washington Wire has more details (and a better vote tally -- we'd originally reported 17-20). "The amendment might have passed had two Democrats not missed the vote; the two were at a news conference on the Medicare drug benefit."
NEWS UPDATE: There were two votes on the bill itself today and one on the amendment to adopt the McCain approach protecting the Geneva Conventions.
Bloomberg reports that the House Judiciary Committee voted 20-17 against the bill and then later reversed itself voting 20-19 to send the legislation to the full House after Republicans leaders rounded up two members who missed the prior roll call and one member switched. Concerning the McCain vs. Bush amendment, as reported in the
WSJ Washington Wire, the vote--the one taken while the two Democrats were out of the room--was defeated 18-17, so it seems the Republicans could have mustered the two more votes they needed to defeat the amendment in a subsequent revote on the amendment. It seems that they had the votes to undermine the Geneva Conventions and suspend habeas corpus all along. Isn't that reassuring?
UPDATE: According to a staffer for Debbra Wasserman Schultz, one of the two Democratic congresspersons who missed the vote on the amendment, the congresswoman left for a short prescheduled press conference on medicare reform, an issue critical to her home district in Florida. The vote was hastily called. Once she learned of the vote, she left the press conference and hurried back, but was not in time to record her vote.
ACTION: SAVE THE GREAT WRIT - BOTH the McCain and Bush versions of the bill suspend habeas corpus, the right dating back to the Magna Carta (1215) not to be locked up indefinately at the president's whim. This is breathtaking in its implications for a free society. The Center for Constitutional Rights is urging everyone to use this link to contact their Senators today to save this 800 year old protection of human rights, the linchpin of freedom and liberty. This is an emergency. Act now.
INFO LINKS: Judges Tell Congress: Don't Suspend Habeas Corpus
Democracy Now Interview with Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights