A Poison Pill for the McCain Amendment

House Republican leaders did their best today to derail the defense authorization bill containing John McCain's amendment outlawing torture. Of course, the Republicans are already doing their best to water it down by prohibiting Guantanamo detainees the right to access U. S. courts and by allowing evidence obtained under "coercion" - images of dogs, waterboards and Lyndee England come to mind. The poison pill is attempting to insert unrelated legislation dealing with campaign finance into the authorization bill.

The end result is that the defense authorization bill is stalled both by the Republicans' efforts to put unrelated legislation into it and by the Republicans' refusal to accept the amendment. We don't get a clear statement that America, despite its leadership, is not a land of torturers, our soldiers don't get their pay raises or medical treatment but Bush can have detainees tortured for a while longer without fear of prosecution.

By the way, the amendment to allow evidence obtained by "coercion" in the military kangaroo courts was introduced by a Republican. That makes the U. S. the only nation in the world to allow evidence gained by torture in a court of law.