The House Judiciary Committee perpetrated an astounding bait-and-switch maneuver this afternoon in its vote(s) on President Bush's pro-torture detainee bill.
Earlier this afternoon, TPM Muckraker reported that the panel had voted down the bill, 18-17:
House Panel Defeats WH Detainee Bill; GOP in Conflict
By Justin Rood - September 20, 2006, 3:20 PM
House Judiciary Committee votes down White House-backed detainee bill, CQ reports (sub. req.):
The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday rejected the Bush administration's proposed ground rules for interrogation and trial of enemy combatants captured in the war on terrorism, defeating a bill that was approved last week by the Armed Services Committee.
CQ presaged the atmosphere around the initial vote in a
Tuesday article:
Senate GOP Flock Wanders as Election Nears
By Martin Kady II, CQ Staff
Tuesdays in the Senate are normally reserved for catered "policy lunches" aimed at getting the party on message for the week. But things are far from normal in the Senate these days.
...some bills thought to be slam-dunks are now in the category of maybe not.
...(e)ven in the more disciplined House, GOP leaders have encountered a few obstacles in finishing its military tribunals bill (HR 6054). Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., has asserted his panel's jurisdiction over the bill, and the House International Relations Committee may also consider the legislation, delaying the quick House passage that leaders were hoping for.
Majority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, insisted Tuesday that Republicans are on the same page.
"We see unity amongst Republicans in our willingness to give the president the tools to fight the terrorists and to help keep America safe," Boehner said.
But in the same breath, Boehner admitted "we are still arguing about the details of those tools, I should say, trying to resolve the details of those tools."
A few hours later however, it became clear that the GOP flock wasn't wandering that far from their Good Shepherd: the initial vote rejecting Bush's waterboarding-friendly bill turned out to be merely a parliamentary ploy. After applying sufficient force to secure more Bush-approving votes from the panel, the committee called for a re-vote:
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.
On top of the 11th-hour lobbying for a second vote, there was one more factor that insured the committee's reversal of its original vote: the absence of two key Democratic Representatives whose votes would have gone for the McCain-Warner-Graham amendment:
The amendment might have passed had two Democrats not missed the vote; the two were at a news conference on the Medicare drug benefit. A spokesman for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, one of the two, said she was rushing back for the vote but just missed it. "She's obviously disappointed," said the spokesman, Jonathan Beeton. "It was unfortunate timing."
Unfortunate timing indeed. Shame that Rep. Schulz's Republican colleagues didn't take the time to notify her and her Democratic ally of the House Judiciary Committee's quietly scheduled re-vote.
On tonight's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, the WaPo's Dan Balz characterized today's GOP rubber-stamp ruse thus: the dysfunctional family fight that defines the current Capitol Hill dynamic just entered the realm of domestic abuse.