Under the emerging deal, the CIA and other civilian interrogators would be given the same legal rights as currently guaranteed members of the military who are accused of breaking interrogation guidelines, these officials added. Those rules say the accused can defend themselves by arguing it was reasonable for them to believe they were obeying a legal order.
Some opposition is building from Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, but it doesn't appear to be a serious threat.
On a side note, it's being reported that McCain and Feingold will introduce legislation today to tighten the lobbying laws.
The lawmakers will introduce a measure as early as today that would require lobbyists to disclose through quarterly electronic reports all the contributions they make, the fund- raisers they arrange and the amount they spend on behalf of candidates and political parties, according to a person who has seen a draft. The legislation would require disclosure of all grass-roots activities and double to two years the waiting period before a lawmaker-turned-lobbyist could lobby a former colleague.
McCain is picking up brownie points with the public for his stance on torture, and now he wants to toughen the lobbying laws. Could he be looking at a run for president? It's also interesting that Feingold is working on this effort along with McCain, in addition to threatening a filibuster of the reauthorized Patriot Act. Perhaps vice-presidential candidate is in his future? McCain/Feingold 2008. They may just be the saviors the Republican ticket was looking for.
CLARIFICATION: I caught a lousy virus from Bostonian Exile that appears to have made its way to The Impolitic and me. (Who knew human viruses were transmissible through the internet. I thought Nortons would protect me.) Anyway, my hubby pointed out that my McCain/Feingold ticket didn't make sense, and upon inspection, he is correct as it is written. What I should have said is McCain would run under the Republican ticket and save the GOP from a total wipeout in 2008, and Feingold would run under the Democrat ticket. It would be a win-win situation for everyone.
Hey, Commander-in-Chief had a Republican president and independent vice-president. It could happen. At least that's what my feverish brain is telling me. I hope to blog more tomorrow, but for now I'm posting this and hitting my pillow.
4 comments:
Oh, yeah, McCain is setting up his run. Early polling shows the only real competition he has is Giuliani who is (shudder) pro abortion. Not to mention Rudy's famous affair carried out in front of everybody when he was mayor. The fundies won't take Giuliani.
So, McCain is the man. He got the Bush blessing when they swiftboated Kerry, just like they did McCain in 2000, and everyone turned to McCain to ask, "is that okay?"
McCain then went on to campaign for Bush later that week and said such attacks are regrettable, but look at this great president Bush. No matter what's going down on torture, he signed his contract in the 2004 pres election when he campaigned with Bush.
Plus, he's got the added benefit of his war position. Pro war, but we didn't send enough troops, so he can say he was for the war, but distance himself from the failure.
Definitely the front runner.
Mike
http://bornatthecrestoftheempire.blogspot.com/
Hi Mike, it does look like McCain will be a front runner with or without the Republicans behind him. I wish I could remember what show I saw him on recently, but he implied that he might be willing to leave his party and run on a different ticket if he decided to pursue the nomination. He didn't specifically say independent, but that would make the most sense.
McCain is well liked by people on all sides and would be hard to beat unless the Democrats come up with a strong candidate. Feingold is a possibility (at least he had the integrity to speak out against the Patriot Act right from the beginning ), but the push to keep Hillary's name out there scares me. I don't think she has any chance of winning.
That's my dream at this point, the full fracture of the Republican party separating the moderates who I don't have too much of a problem with from the crazy christians.
I had expected that the separation would come from the Christian side though, the Repubs nominate somebody fairly centrist, and the Fundies decide to run their own third party candidate who like Ross Perot would peel off enough votes.
I would be surprised, but intrigued if that split came from the moderates, although if you look at the republican side of the group of fourteen and maybe one or two dems, there could be a centrist thrid party.
Now that would be interesting. I would give them a fair hearing.
Mike
Mike, I would give a centrist third party person a fair shake too. I feel the same about the crazy lefties as I do about the Fundies.
Midwestern, most people I know think Hillary would be a liability to any ticket. There's too much baggage attached to the Clinton name to keep the focus where it should be during a campaign. The right would muck up the issues with Whitewater, Monica, Foster, etc., and voters would just get completely turned off by her.
The other point I hear quite often is that the country is just not ready for a woman president yet. There is still a good old boy mentality in much of the country. Sigh.
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