Each week President Obama delivers an address to the American people, and this past Saturday was no different (you can see it here.
And each week the Republicans deliver a response, which is often on a different subject than that addressed by the president. This past Saturday, Maine's junior senator, Susan Collins, spoke about what she describes as the "failure" of the administration regarding the treatment of the Christmas Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab:
In it, Sen. Collins has this "corker," as we say in Maine:
Once afforded the protection our Constitution guarantees American citizens, this foreign terrorist ‘lawyered up’ and stopped talking.
Make the jump:
Here is the complete transcript. The context of the quote above is:
This failure occurred when the Obama Justice Department unilaterally decided to treat this foreign terrorist as an ordinary criminal. Abdulmutallab was questioned for less than one hour before the Justice Department advised him that he could remain silent and offered him an attorney at our expense. Once afforded the protection our Constitution guarantees American citizens, this foreign terrorist ‘lawyered up’ and stopped talking.
Who knew that our Constitution only affords rights to American citizens? Foreign nationals here legally on Green Cards or visas better be on the lookout. Also, Collins apparently forgot Boumediene et. al. v. Bush, President of the United States, et. al., in which the law that she voted for that denied the writ of habeas corps to those held at Git Mo was ruled unconstitutional.
And not to be overlooked is Collins' anger that Abdulmutallab "stopped talking," which she mentions twice. What methods does the senator propose to get Abdulmutallab to break his silence?
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Glenn Greenwald has this excellent piece today on how much the approach to terrorism has changed since the Reagan administration, in nostalgia for Bush/Cheney radicalism. Democrats should take note.