Monday, March 19, 2007

Congressional Combatants

Sen Kennedy (D-MA) is talking on the floor about Attorneygate and giving a history of an issue with Georgia trying to circumvent the Voting Rights Act by demanding photo ids and charging $20 for them. In spite of the fact the Dept of Justice didn't investigate the courts found it a poll tax. There were several iterations and there was a Dept of Justice official who was opposed to the Georgia laws eventually moved out to a different job. Long story short, Kennedy says he asked Gonzales about the move, was it retaliation for his position. He says he never got an answer! Kennedy says he asked the same question of other Justice Department officials and never got an answer!

Given Gonzales' view of the unitary executive and the separation of powers, maybe the Senate should declare Gonzales and other high ranking Department of Justice officials to be Congressional Combatants. They should be moved to secret holding facilities where irregular interrogation techniques could be used. This is obviously needed to protect democracy because the standard techniques are ineffective. I'm sure the Attorney General would approve.

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