Letters to the Editor

• Dodd's For Real

  [Read the article: Reid and company target the true enemy: "Dodd and his allies"]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  This is when I realized, during Tuesday's debate, that Chris Dodd was acting out of conscience, and on principle:

  A year ago, when the Military Commissions Act came up for a vote, I felt very strongly about it. I spoke against it. I voted against it. The idea of walking away from habeas corpus, the idea of allowing torture, the idea of walking away from the Geneva Conventions--I regretted deeply then that I didn't do what I am prepared to do today, and that is to vigorously fight against that legislation.

  I think most of us today recognize what a great mistake that was, to give away those rights. I think most of us recognize how it hurt our country. I am determined not to let that happen again. As long as it takes, I will stand here and insist that we need to strip immunity out of this bill.

  [snip]

  As tragic as the events of 9/11 were, if we begin to undo our own liberties and rights, we give them a success far beyond anything they could have ever imagined. I have been here today for the last 8 hours, and I will stay here for as long as it takes.

  At the appropriate time, when we have exhausted the ability to talk about it generally, I will offer the language to strike it, and I hope my colleagues will join me in that effort. But I am determined not to let this go forward, because I think we have done that too often. I myself have been guilty of accepting far too much from this administration. Just one small thing is at issue today. But then I start to look back at all of the small things that have been done, so-called ``small things'' over the last 5 or 6 years--most recently, the destruction of interrogation tapes at the CIA. And the combined weight of these ``small things'' truly frightens me.

  What was going on at the CIA? Why did that happen? Why Abu Ghraib? Why Guantanamo? Why get rid of habeas corpus? Why bring back waterboarding? Why do away with the Geneva Conventions? Why nominate someone to be the Attorney General who believes that Presidents have the right to violate Federal statutes here under the guise of protecting the Nation's security?

  Why, after each one of those these things? Why the Military Commissions Act? In case after case after case, we see the slow erosion going on. And again, regardless of what your politics are, regardless of where you find yourself on the spectrum, when our basic rights are involved, we must stand up and say, ``Enough!'' - Senator Chris Dodd, 12/17/07

  http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2007_record&page=S15743&position=all

  http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2007_record&page=S15759&position=all

  Those words speak volumes, and told me what I needed to know. A Senator finally stopped stifling his conscience to do the right thing, because he had to. Any Democratic colleague who heard that and doesn't understand it, has long since lost touch with his or her own conscience when it comes to public service - their own cynical assigning of hidden motivations to Dodd says far more about them than about him.

  Permalink Friday, December 21, 2007 11:28 AM