The victory last Tuesday was an exceptional expression of the American people's distaste for the farce in Iraq and the Republican attempts to cover it up. Make no mistake about it though; had the Iraq war gone well, deposing Saddam Hussein and allowing American troops to leave with minimal casualties, the average American could not have cared less that the war was initiated on a series of lies and was immoral and illogical. In my opinion, 70% of Americans have never heard of Habeas Corpus and less than half of those who have heard of it know what it means.
Senator Patrick Leahy has said that he intends to use the Judiciary Committee to see about restoring the right of habeas corpus to enemy combatants who are not United States citizens or legal residents. This is a noble and ethical thing to do, as one would expect of Senator Leahy. However,
it is the wrong thing to do in the context of the larger picture, which is to avoid subjecting ourselves and our children to a generation of fascism.
There is no way that the idiot-in-chief would fail to veto legislation of the sort proposed by Senator Leahy. Moreover, there is no way such a veto would be overridden by persuading at least 16 Republican senators and Joe Lieberman to vote to do so. Hence, Senator Leahy's quest is morally justified but quixotic and it will backfire because the rethugs will use it to convince Americans that Democrats are "soft on terror".
As things stand now, Justice Kennedy is all that stands between us and a generation of fascism. He is now the swing vote on a Supreme court that would otherwise eliminate many of our civil rights on the ground that they don't appear in a literal reading of the Constitution. Justices Stevens and Ginsburg who can reliably be counted upon to counter this so-called "strict constructionist" point of view are not in the best of health and are unlikely to sit on the court much past 2009. There is at least a 50-50 chance that the current Court will eliminate the more objectionable parts of the Military Tribunals Act and the now Democratic Congress will not pass anything like it again.
So let's be practical. In order to undo the constitutional dismemberment promulgated by the chimp-in-chief and his administration, we are going to need a Democratic President in 2008, together with control of both Houses of Congress. We can't afford to do things because they are right or moral at this point in time; we can afford only to do those things that increase the likelihood that we control the executive and legislative branches as a result of the 2008 elections.
This means that we devote our efforts to passing bills that are favored by large numbers of Americans. Increase the minimum wage. Force Medicare to neogtiate with big Pharma. Enable federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Double the personal exemption for children under 5 years old in households whose taxable income is less than $200,000 and bill this as an incentive not to abort babies.
Write a new tax plan that doesn't increase the taxes of anyone whose taxable income is less than $200,000 but that increases taxes on those earning more than that such a way as to make the budget revenue neutral. Investigate, by subpoena, the huge breaks given to energy and big Pharma and pass legislation to eliminate them. Let King George veto any or all of these; keep track of the rethugs who fail to support these iniatives and you have your campaign issues for those who are up for election in 2008, as well as the basis for the Democratic platform.
Let people like General Clark promulgate positions on Iraq. He is far more qualified than any Congressman or Senator or groups of Congressmen or Senators. Let's keep the noses of our Congress firmly on the grindstone of producing legislation that favors the poor and middle class with an eye toward 2008 and leave esoteric issues of morality for the time when we are in a position to enforce our will on them. Otherwise, we risk another "Scalito" and a generation of fascism.