Restore Civil Liberties by Amending the Iraq Supplemental

I support refusing to fund the war. But failing that, Congress could attach an amendment to the Iraq war supplemental funding bill to defund: wiretapping without warrants, extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo prison, physical coercion (torture), all secret CIA prisons, spying on domestic opponents of the war, national security letters, and other executive branch usurpations of the constitution (see this New York Times editorial for a decent "Must Do" list)?

The Rules Committee can add amendments to the supplemental. The amendments have to be germane. I'm no expert on the definition of germaneness (the House Rules require "that all amendments be germane, or related to, the matter they seek to amend. This prevents the addition of unrelated matters to bills on the floor of the House or in its committees." Senate amendments don't generally have to be germane, but amendments to appropriations bills do.) In this case, however, the Bush administration insists that the Iraq supplemental is in order to "fight the war on terror." And they claim that Bush's various constitutional violations are part of this same fight. Voila. Instant germaneness, courtesy of Bush's lies. These amendments would be directly relevant to how this country engages in what Bush calls the war on terror.

The basic message that defenders of constitutional freedom could articulate is that the 1) the US can't successfully defend democracy by destroying it at home, and 2) these amendments prevent terrorists from winning by destroying fundamental freedoms in the US. I know very few Democrats campaigned to restore the Constitution, so, sadly, they couldn't claim much of an electoral mandate. Jim McGovern (D-MA), one of the members of the rules committtee (wikipedia supplies the current list), is an exception, and perhaps he could take the lead. On the Senate side, perhaps Leahy (D-VT) would be motivated to adopt this approach? We can insist that the rest of the Congressfolk speak up too. They took an oath to defend the Constitution, and doing so starts at home, here, now.

If Bush vetoed a bill that was amended in this way, he'd be nixing the funding for the war. If he signed it, well, at least it would start to restore usurped constitutional liberty.

Anybody know more about the germaneness issue? Who else in Congress might be motivated to advance this method for restoring civil liberties?

For more info about activists getting involved to stop these abuses (in addition to the links provided above in the intro to this diary) please see the following stories from Peacework Magazine:
Questions for Candidates on US Torture Policy and Practices

Iowa Peace Activists Quash Grand Jury Subpoenas  

Torture, American Style

Why Am I Marching to Guantánamo? Against Torture, and for Humanity

Torture's Dirty Secret: It Works

Truth, Torture, and the American Way

Communities Resolve to Uphold Constitutional Rights

Ground the Torture Planes

"USA Patriot Act" Threatens Constitutional Rights