Given the state we are in--military tribunals, stripping of the fourth amendment, government secrecy it was nice to see the NYT editorial board come out swinging:
Last week was hardly the first time that we have found ourselves scratching our heads in anguished confusion about what, exactly, President Bush is trying to achieve by trashing the Constitution at Guantánamo Bay.
Thank-you. It would be nice to see the Democrats in office furious over the Republican's trampling of the constitution. Really. Why is this so hard? Republicans hammer Democrats for not being patriotic and for not inculcating American values. Here is what the democrats need to say....
Guantanamo Bay, torture, secret trials and permanent incarceration are not American. Terrorism is ugly. We must be tough but when we sacrifice the constitution and we sacrifice our American Values and the rights that the Revolution was fought for--we lose America, and we sacrifice America's standing in the world.
Now then there also is the WSJ editorial. There they try to take the position that the media was ready to deal the death blow to the military tribunal:
To borrow the obligatory media idiom, this "raises questions" about the process -- namely one: Could anything happen at Guantanamo that isn't "a stunning rebuke" or "an embarrassing blow" to the Bush Administration?
Of course there is nothing wrong with an unconstitutional, secret military system which also violates the Geneva Conventions. The problem is that the media were spring loaded, ready pounce and criticize the system. However even the WSJ is forced to admit that public support for Bush's practices are wanning:
Hamdan could be held indefinitely as an enemy combatant, but the political explosion that option would touch off makes it all but untenable.
Yeah those explosions of public support for due process are just a bitch.
The best part is that these due-process, trial-wanting freaks are part of the anti-antiterror movement:
What's bizarre is that even the release of a member of al Qaeda won't convince the anti-antiterror movement of the legitimacy of military commissions.
Yeah-- the Framers of the Constitution, the authors of the Geneva Conventions, people who care about civil liberties, the anti-antiterror movement.
All the same thing.