{"id":5798,"date":"2005-11-10T11:20:53","date_gmt":"2005-11-10T16:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5798"},"modified":"2005-11-10T11:20:53","modified_gmt":"2005-11-10T16:20:53","slug":"bush-threatens-veto-over-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bush-threatens-veto-over-torture\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush threatens veto over torture"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s been some debate — or at a minimum, ambiguity — over whether the president fully supports Dick Cheney’s efforts to protect the CIA’s ability to torture detainees. This week, a State Department official described Cheney’s camp as a “shrinking island<\/a>,” with key administration officials, including Condoleezza Rice and John Negroponte, opposing Cheney’s position. Even Scott McClellan distanced himself<\/a> from Cheney’s lobbying efforts.<\/p>\n

So, where’s Bush in all of this? He’s in the Oval Office, threatening a veto<\/a> and lobbying alongside Cheney.<\/p>\n

As the House prepares to take up a proposed ban on abusive treatment of terrorism suspects, the Republican-led Congress appears headed toward a collision with President Bush.<\/p>\n

It’s a fight over treatment of prisoners by U.S. interrogators that pits Bush against usual allies, such as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and prominent veterans, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.<\/p>\n

Bush is threatening to veto two major defense bills because they include an amendment to ban abusive treatment of detainees that the Senate has attached to both measures.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Congress may very well call his bluff. In the Senate, the torture ban was approved 90-9. In the House, Acting House Majority Leader Roy Blunt said Bush and Cheney have both lobbied House Republicans to oppose the anti-torture amendment, but Blunt told USA Today<\/a>, “It’s hard to imagine it wouldn’t get a lot of votes.”<\/p>\n

In fact, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a Vietnam combat veteran who is backing the torture ban in the House, sounds optimistic.<\/p>\n

The conservative Pennsylvania Democrat wrote in a letter to House colleagues that revelations about abuses of prisoners in U.S. custody are “degrading our society and its political and legal systems.” He says he has the votes — including some Republicans — to win House approval of McCain’s amendment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bush, of course, has not vetoed a single measure in five years. Would he dare use the veto pen for the first time in his presidency to support torture policies? Is he that far detached from reality?<\/p>\n

We’ll find out soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s been some debate — or at a minimum, ambiguity — over whether the president fully supports Dick Cheney’s efforts to protect the CIA’s ability to torture detainees. This week, a State Department official described Cheney’s camp as a “shrinking island,” with key administration officials, including Condoleezza Rice and John Negroponte, opposing Cheney’s position. Even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}