Checks, balances, and tribunals

Alright, it's time to give the Senate, including a few of its Republican members, some credit. Finally, it seems, that august body, a repository of deliberative democracy, is performing its constitutionally mandated role of checker and balancer of the executive branch, that is, of Bush. There's been an awful lot of kowtowing and rubber stamping over the past five years, with Bush using the war on terror to justify, inter alia, detainee mistreatment and torture, secret prisons, illegal eavesdropping, an assault on the free press, and the ongoing disaster that is the Iraq War.

But enough is enough, at least when it comes to tribunals and torture. CNN reports:

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday voted 15-9 to recommend a bill -- over the objections of the Bush administration -- that would authorize tribunals for terror suspects in a way that it says would protect suspects' rights.

The bill was backed by Republican Sens. John Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

It differs from the administration's proposal in two major ways: It would permit terror suspects to view classified evidence against them and does not include a proposal that critics say reinterprets a Geneva Conventions rule that prohibits cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees.

Which is quite promising, of course. What isn't promising is that nine senators on the Committee voted against the bill, that is, with and for Bush. Checking and balancing -- and standing up for basic human rights and against the brutal depravity of torture -- is for the Democrats and a few Republican renegades who dare challenge the White House. The bulk of the GOP, it seems, will continue to kowtow and rubber stamp.

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According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Colin Powell has "endorsed efforts by three Republican senators [not to mention all those Democratic ones] to block President Bush's plan to authorize harsh interrogations of terror suspects" -- that is, he sides with Warner, McCain, Graham, and the majority of the Senate Armed Services Committee, for human rights and against torture. (See also The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the L.A. Times, MSNBC, Time, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, and the BBC -- yes, it's getting a lot of coverage.)

Whatever his past errors, and one thinks back to his infamous U.N. presentation that made the case for the Iraq War, he is a man of honour and conviction. And he's right on this: "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism."

Beginning? I would say the doubt is everywhere. Because of Bush, much of the rest of the world, much of America, has come to doubt the United States. This attempt to block Bush is an attempt to restore America's moral authority and to wage the war on terror without sacrificing America's values. Democrats are prepared to do that, as are, in this case, a few key Republicans.

This is a start, yes, and it ought to be applauded, but it's clearly time for a Democratic Congress. Only if -- and when -- Democrats control the House and the Senate will this Republican president be effectively checked and balanced by the direct representatives of the American people.

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For more, see Think Progress, The Carpetbagger Report, TAPPED, AMERICAblog, Taylor Marsh, The Left Coaster, The Heretik, and Andrew Sullivan.