We stand on the shoulders of kings today to make a major statement to the American people.
I do not propose to say many words tonight. The time has come when action rather than speech is required. Eighteen days ago in this Senate I prayed that the responsibility might not fall upon me to ask this country to accept the awful arbitrament of torture. I fear that I may not be able to avoid that responsibility.
But, at any rate, I cannot wish for conditions in which such a burden should fall upon me in which I should feel clearer than I do today as to where my duty lies.
No politician can say that the Senate could have done more to try to keep open the way for an honorable and equitable settlement of the dispute between President Bush and the rule of law. Nor have we neglected any means of making it crystal clear to the Bush Administration that if they insisted on using force again in the manner in which they had used it in the past ie waterboarding we were resolved to oppose them by empty threats.
Now that all the relevant documents are being made public we shall stand at the bar of history knowing that the responsibility for this terrible catastrophe lies on the shoulders of one man, Mr. Bush, who has not hesitated to plunge the world into misery in order to serve his own senseless ambitions...
Only last night Senator Reid did see the Attorney General nominee. Once again he expressed to him what, indeed, the Senate Committee had already said publicly, that they were willing to negotiate with the Bush administration about their disputes on an equal basis.
What was the reply of the the Bush administration? The reply was that without another word the president wrote a signing statement disavowing his intention to follow the law. In these circumstances there is only one course open to us.
Myself and Senator Chuck Youmer Chamberlain have been instructed to hand to the President the following document:
"Early this morning the Bush administration issued a proclamation to the CIA which indicated that he was about to do whatever the hell he wants. Information which has reached Senate and the House of Representatives indicates that torture of detainees is proceeding. In these circumstances it appears to the Senate and the House of Representatives that by their action the Bush administration have created conditions, namely, torture of detainees threatening the Constitution of the United States, which call for the implementation by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the undertaking to Constitutional law to come to her assistance. I am accordingly to inform Chairman Leahy that unless the Bush administration are prepared to give the Senate Judiciary Committee satisfactory assurances that the Bush administration have suspended all torture of detainees and are prepared promptly to retreat from attacks upon the Constitution, the Senate Judiciary Committee will without hesitation fulfill their obligations to rule of law."
If a reply to this last warning is unfavorable, and I do not suggest that it is likely to be otherwise, Chairman Leahy is instructed to ask for Mr. Mukasey’s withdrawal of nomination. In that case we are ready.
Yesterday, we took further steps towards the rationalization of our capitulation. This morning we told our staffs to participate in a silence about the imminent vote. We have also taken a number of other measures, both at home and abroad, which the Senate will not perhaps expect me to specify in detail. Briefly, they represent the final steps in accordance with pre-arranged plans to grovel, whine, and complain ineffectually. These last can be put into force rapidly, and are of such a nature that they can be deferred until capitulation seems inevitable. Steps have also been taken under the powers conferred by the Senate last week to safeguard the position of our asses in regard to campaign contributions of various kinds.
The thoughts of many of us must at this moment inevitably be turning back to 2002, and to a comparison of our position now with that which existed then. How do we stand this time? The answer is that both the Democratic Senate and the House are ready, and that the situation in all directions is far more favorable and reassuring than in 2002, while behind the fighting Democratic Congress we have built up a vast political capital under our scheme of keeping the powder dry under all circumstances.
As regards the immediate manpower requirements, the Democratic members of Congress are in the fortunate position of having almost as many Congressional bills as they can conveniently handle at this moment. There are, however, certain bills in which votes are immediately required, both for Military and Civil Defense. These will be announced in detail through the press and the right wing echo chamber.
The main and most satisfactory point to observe is that there is today no need to make an appeal in a general way for Rule of Law such as was issued by Senator Feingold 5 years ago. That appeal has been anticipated by many months, and the votes are already available. So much for the immediate present. Now we must look to the future. It is essential in the face of the Constitutional duties which confront us, more especially in view of our past experiences caving in to President Bush in this matter, to organize our manpower this time upon as methodical, equitable and economical a basis as possible.
We, therefore, propose immediately to cut a deal with President Bush directed to that end. A vote for confirmation will be laid before you which for all practical purposes will amount to an expansion of the Military Commissions Act. Under its operation all detainees will be extraordinarily rendered to torture chambers in foreign lands if and when called upon. It is not intended at the outset that any considerable number of men other than those already in custody shall be rendered, and steps will be taken to ensure that the Bush administration is protected from the threat of punishment.
There is one other allusion which I should like to make before I end my speech, and that is to record my satisfaction with the Senate Judiciary Committee, that throughout these last days of crisis Vice President Cheney also has been doing his best to reach a solution. It now only remains for us to set our teeth and to enter upon this struggle, which we ourselves earnestly endeavored to avoid, with determination to see it through to the end.
We shall enter it with a clear conscience, without the support of American citizens, and the moral disapproval of the greater part of the world.
We have no quarrel with the CIA, except that they allow themselves to be governed by a Nazi Government. As long as that Government exists and pursues the methods it has so persistently followed during the last two years, there will be no peace in the Middle East. We shall merely pass from one crisis to another, and see one country after another attacked by methods which have now become familiar to us in their sickening technique.
We are resolved that these methods must continue. If out of the capitulation we again re-establish in the world the rules of he who has the gold rules and might makes right, why, then even the political favors that will be entailed upon us will find their fullest justification