It seems quite a few Democrats in the Senate have not added Habeas Corpus to their MySpace friends list yet. Twenty-eight Democrats plus Bernie Sanders have co-sponsored Arlen Specter's bill so far but there are still twenty-two that haven't formally pledged their support. Republicans aren't going to support the lone Republican who created the bill, so where are you guys and gals?
Bob Geiger asks the question:
With the addition over the last couple of weeks of Senators Byrd, Carper, Klobuchar, McCaskill, Menendez and Nelson (Bill), there are 28 Democratic Senators, along with Sanders, cosponsoring Specter's S. 185, which could very well come up for a vote next week as an amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill.
Here's the cosponsor list:So I again raise the question: Where are the other Democrats?
- Joe Biden (D-DE)
- Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
- Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
- Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
- Robert Byrd (D-WV)
- Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
- Ben Cardin (D-MD)
- Thomas Carper (D-DE)
- Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
- Chris Dodd (D-CT)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Russ Feingold (D-WI)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
- John Kerry (D-MA)
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
- Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
- Carl Levin (D-MI)
- Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
- Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
- Bill Nelson (D-FL)
- Barack Obama (D-IL)
- Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
- Ken Salazar (D-CO)
- Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
- Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
- Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
We expect almost none of Specter's Republican colleagues to support his leadership on something so basic to our country's creed. The GOP long ago divorced itself of any commitment to our Constitution, so our standards for them have been lowered accordingly. But we expect more of Democrats and should ask why the others are not stepping up and cosponsoring this legislation along with 29 of their colleagues (including Sanders) in the Democratic caucus.
Thanks Bob for raising this issue. It would seem to be a no-brainer to restore fundamental rights to Americans. Habeas corpus is something we should all count on if god-forbid we are arrested and detained for no apparent reason. The detainees from abroad that reside against their will in Guantanamo haven't had access to those rights and the Republican Congress of last year blocked American citizens from that protection as well. We need that right restored, and we need it now.
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