Simply amazing. In the face of a series of amendments by Republican Senators McCain, Warner and Graham that would have instituted new rules against torture, as well as other Republican-backed attempts to strengthen veterans benefits and delay base closures until after the Iraq War, Bill Frist has simply pulled the entire $450 billion defense bill from the Senate floor. Funding the troops now won't be reconsidered until after the summer recess.
From the Washington Times, of all places, since it humors me greatly to cite them:
Senate Republican leaders pulled the plug on the defense bill yesterday, rather than face a host of votes on base closings, veterans benefits and the administration's detainee policy that could have embarrassed President Bush.
That decision came just moments after the Senate voted 98-0 to make sure that the Boy Scouts of America will be able to continue holding camping events on U.S. military bases. The vote was an amendment to the massive defense bill, which authorizes nearly $450 billion in spending for fiscal year 2006.
But then the entire bill came to a halt when Republicans pushed a cloture vote, which would have limited debate and made the contentious amendments out of order. The 50-48 vote to end debate fell 10 votes short of the 60 needed, and rather than allow a showdown with the president, Republican leaders withdrew the bill and went instead to a measure protecting gun manufacturers from lawsuits.
Indeed, the move is widely seen as a transparent retreat to prevent "embarrassing" the Bush administration. Replacing it is a Frist-backed bill to grant gun manufacturers wide-ranging immunity from any lawsuits arising from criminal acts in which their weapons are used -- a move for which Frist is rightly being hammered, since the symbolism of pulling a defense bill for a right-wing corporate sop is just a little too obvious to parties on all sides.
Frist, though, is never one to cut his losses. His stated reason he placed the gun bill up for consideration instead of finishing the defense bill? To support our troops!
And linking the bill to the war in Iraq, Frist said that Beretta, the manufacturer of pistols to U.S. forces in Iraq, warned that it may go bankrupt if the lawsuits are not stopped.
"These frivolous suits threaten a domestic industry that is critical to our national defense," Frist said. "Given the profusion of litigation, the Department of Defense faces the very real prospect of outsourcing sidearms for our soldiers to foreign manufacturers."
I'm going to have to stop here, because I'm in danger of passing out, I'm laughing so hard...