Here's a Surprise

Two hours ago a Republican filibuster in the Senate shot down a bipartisan effort to restore the right of terrorism suspects to contest their detentions and treatment in federal courts by using a writ of habeas corpus.

The 56-43 vote fell short of the 60 needed to cut off debate and move to a final vote on the amendment to the Senate's annual defense policy bill. The measure did garner the support of six Republicans, a small victory for its supporters, but couldn’t snag Lieberman. Six Republicans -- Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, Chuck Hagel, Richard Lugar, John Sununu and Gordon Smith -- joined every Democrat in voting for cloture on the habeas corpus provision. Joseph Lieberman voted no.

As you may recall, last year's Military Commissions Act, which suspended the writ of habeas corpus for terrorism suspects at the military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other “off-shore” prisons.

When Democrats won Congress in November, liberal activists and civil libertarians naively assumed the new Democratic majority would quickly tackle address the excesses from President Bush's "war on terror," including the suspension of habeas corpus rights, wiretapping without court warrants, and the maintenance of the offshore prison in Guantanamo Bay. None of those constitutionally suspect laws have been reversed. Indeed, last month, our allegedly DemocraticCongress extended and expanded the administration's wiretapping program for six months.

Rather than bother activists appearing at meaningless speeches by ex-presidential candidates, the brownshirt cops who administered an electronic spanking to Andrew Meyer should take their Taser and be sent to wander around the halls of Congress, shocking some sense into the idiots who think the Constitution is a document of convenience and can be messed with like corporate financial statements.