(Previous edition at Monica Crowley's/ IN THE SHADOWS [http://monicamemo.typepad.com/weblog/2008/06/in-the-shadow.html])
JULY 18,2008 Update: Gringommentary: OBAMA BODY LANGUAGE(See below 'Lincoln, FDR, Bush')
George Bush, his poll numbers almost as dismal as
Congress's, is not normally mentioned with Democratic icon Franklin Delano
Roosevelt and Republican icon Abraham Lincoln. Arguably bashed as much as "the
gangly ape" Lincoln was, Bush is thought to have little in common with them,
except for presiding over a war. Could this week's momentous legal decision change that? It could. But that would depend on George Bush.
According to Chief Justice John Roberts, the Boumediene v. Bush 5-4 decision marks a very dark day in Supreme Court history. To paraphrase Roberts, with a little help from FDR: This day will live in judicial infamy.
For the first time ever, alien prisoners captured on a battlefield are to be granted habeas corpus rights. The Mujahadeen are to get Constitutional rights of a US citizen. A lawyer's dream? A legal nightmare for the US military and court system? It's certainly one giant step for turning warfare into lawfare. The American soldier, besides the national defense, must be ready to gather evidence for his own defense. His every action, including pulling a trigger, can be subject to supboena.
Liberals and Democrats are grinning wide. They feel they have socked it to George Bush again and struck a blow for "human rights", a progressive twofer. The SOTUS decision was a case of five liberals (including a Bush pere appointee) against four conservatives.
Conservatives and Republicans are groaning that, for liberals, the desire to bash Bush and score points trumps common sense and national security every time.
Republicans say these Guantanomo prisoners, being held indefinitely, are very dangerous Islamic fanatics.(Monica Crowley, who visited there and saw them up close, concurs.) It's been documented that some of those released have gone on to kill Americans. The Democrats counter that not all of them are dangerous, some are innocent, and therefore you need to put them all through the (already clogged) US court system, no matter how much time, money and chaos it takes.
The gringomanic response:
Of course the Democrats are transparent, increasingly partisan, increasingly "progressive." To see them is to see through them.
But as for George Bush, how serious is he? Mildly? Very? Or what?
If Bush is deeply concerned, he doesn't have to cite Franklin Roosevelt, who thought nothing of holding German prisoners in WW II, when no Democrat "progressive" would dare to squawk about their "human rights" and did not even complain when FDR and the military tribunal ordered them executed.
What is to stop George Bush from hearkening back to Abraham Lincoln, if he's serious? In 1861 Lincoln suspended civil rights wherever he thought peaceniks and others endangered the war effort. There was no ACLU on the attack.If there had been, all indications are that Lincoln would have tossed it into prison without a second thought. In 1862 Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and had copperhead democrats arrested for interfering with the war effort. The ACLU wouldn't have stood a chance against Lincoln.
George Bush would not have to go near as far as Honest Abe. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus nationally, and for U.S. citizens. Bush could be much milder. What is to stop him from suspending habeas corpus for any alien prisoner---who arguably does not have that right in the first place? Georgie could suspend it just for good measure, for anyone who believes that the five liberal activist Judges were acting Constitutionally.
There is precedent, as the legalists like to say. It is there for the President.
Would a globalist guy like George Bush, a "compassionate conservative", never too fussy about borders, be inclined? Would he mind the full-court press of liberals barking and yelping at him for suspending a "global right" of these aliens--- a "right" that never was until their Judges said it is?
July 18, 2008 Gringommentary: OBAMA BODY LANGUAGE. Here is a foto of Barack Obama with UK Prime Minister Brown. No prompting from gringoman. Put on your body language reading glasses and see what you see.
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