Monday, June 20, 2005

Will Durbin Be Punished?

Will Senator Richard "Gitmo Dick" Durbin be disciplined for slandering his own country during wartime and for having "given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof"? Last Tuesday, speaking on the floor of the United States Senate, this is what Senator Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, reported about supposed "atrocities" at the Pentagon run Guantanamo Detention Facility:
"... what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings."
Since then, Senator Durbin has become the darling of Aljazerra and other middle eastern broadcast media and newspapers, who have been spreading his words throughout the Muslim world. The Nazis, the Soviet gulags and the killing fields of Pol Pot are considered the most monstrous and barbaric events of the 20th Century, and the Senator from Illinoise has proclaimed that the American soldiers at Guantanamo Bay are their equals. Those words of the Senator have done great harm to our country and have put the members of the American military in needless danger. No doubt, our young soldiers will suffer bloodshed and death in response to Senator Durbin's false claims, yet not one Muslim detainee at Guantanamo has lost his life, under the hands of our soldiers there.

Mark Steyn explains in The Chicago Sun-Times, Durbin slanders his own country:
"The senator from Illinois' comparisons are as tired as they're grotesque. They add nothing useful to the debate. But around the planet, folks naturally figure that, if only 100 people out of nearly 300 million get to be senators, the position must be a big deal. Hence, headlines in the Arab world like 'U.S. Senator Stands By Nazi Remark.' That's al-Jazeera, where the senator from al-Inois is now a big hero -- for slandering his own country, for confirming the lurid propaganda of his country's enemies. Yes, folks, American soldiers are Nazis and American prison camps are gulags: don't take our word for it, Senator Bigshot says so."
A comment to Kerfuffles by SFCHUD got me to thinking. Members of Congress have a very disagreeable habit of passing laws under which American citizens must live and then exempting themselves from those same laws. In the Constitution of the United States, under Amendment 14, the "most beloved" Amendment of Liberals, "Citizenship Rights" are addressed. Section 3 specifically addresses the members of Congress:
"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."
That last sentence is interesting and I am not sure that I know what it means. Since its ratification in 1868, has the Congress already exempted itself from Amendment 14 of the Constitution? It has been said that members of Congress cannot be punished for anything said on the floors of their respective bodies. If Amendment 14, Section 3, is still in effect, does that mean that Senator "Gitmo Dick" Durbin will be punished? He certainly deserves to be held accountable for the harm of his outrageous slur about his own country. The citizens of that country demand to know.

Tracked back at Wizbang blog where there is a simple definition of "torture" as applied to Guantanamo, and Pirate's Cove where it is said that that Liberals "Fight against other Americans, rather then helping to defeat our enemy's."

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