By Tan Copsey
Much of the noise coming out of the US over the last week has focussed on an apparent split between a small group of Congressional Republicans and the Bush administration. This seemed to herald a new era of Congressional independence. Well, at least for the next week or so prior to the end of this ‘109th’ congress. John Hulsman, writing on this site, went as far as declaring a ‘Republican Civil War’, where those of a sensible, even sensitive (what no torture?) conservative disposition said enough is enough, and set about dismantling the imperial presidency.
Their first move was to target one of the most egregious, and arguably least effective, elements of Bush War on Terror policy, the use of torture on ‘enemy combatants’. Bush and his proxies within in Congress, including a very vocal Bill Frist, were forced to accept a compromise. John McCain, Republican Rebel and long time opponent of extra-legal interrogation methods, hailed the compromise reached claiming that, "there's no doubt that the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved."
On the surface at least, it would seem that a dual victory had been achieved. The prevention of what would have been an outlandish and frankly dangerous piece of legislation and the re-assertion of checks and balances within American Democracy. But looking at things a little more closely one cannot help but feel that a rather incomplete narrative of events has been presented.
The compromise reached hardly represents a horrendous set-back for the Bush Administration. If anything it seems Republicans have rather pulled off something of a PR coup. They have succeeded in shifting the story towards the apparent independence of Congressional Republicans, at a time when their closeness to Bush was badly hurting them in the polls, and glossed over the continuing opposition of the Democrats. Their role in opposing Bush on torture has hardly been mentioned.
It is not my place to question the ideological commitment of real conservatives like John Hulsman (openDemocracy article), or the genuine passion on this issue of John McCain, himself a former Prisoner of War. Still I’m left feeling that these skirmishes between Republicans, so late in the piece, represent more of a ‘phoney war’, timed to ease national pressures on the party and further marginalise the Democrats on issues of Defence.
Eslwhere: Daily Kos has been particularly active in detailing the extent to which the Republicans have massaged the media on this issue + "Republicans, Torture Party".
