Bush's Bill Suffers a Torturous Day in Committee

By Dana Milbank
Thursday, September 21, 2006

House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), fighting to preserve the use of harsh interrogation techniques, speaks with some authority on the subject: He was subjected to seven hours of cruel and unusual punishment as he tried to get the legislation through his committee yesterday.

First came the cruel: As the point man for the Bush administration's military-trials bill -- which would permit questioning methods some regard as torture -- Sensenbrenner saw the legislation come within one vote of collapsing in favor of a Democratic version, despite a six-vote Republican majority on the committee.

Then came the inhuman: Sensenbrenner's bill, in a second vote, failed by three votes when several of his fellow Republicans failed to show up for the roll call or voted with the Democrats.

And finally, the degrading: Sensenbrenner endured a walkout by committee Democrats, then went through the awkward process of restaging a series of votes until the result was more to his liking. Even then, President Bush's plan survived by a single vote.

"A good day's work for a good day's pay," the chairman said wryly when he finally gaveled the session to a close.

It was, in all, a tough day for the jowly, red-faced chairman, who had insisted that the legislation go through his committee against House leaders' wishes. Nor was it one of the finest days for House Republicans, who proved that, on the subject of torture, they could tie themselves in knots just as easily as their colleagues in the Senate, where the Bush bill is in a stalemate with one backed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and friends.

Confronted with one of the weightiest issues of the times -- whether to reinterpret the Geneva Conventions' torture prohibitions -- the committee members quickly retreated to the familiar terrain of extraneous and off-point arguments.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (N.Y.), leading the debate for the Democrats, asked to put into the record an article written by a former prisoner of the KGB about techniques such as sleep deprivation that the Bush plan could allow.

"Objection," the chairman growled, without explaining himself or looking up from his newspaper.

But the talk of sleep deprivation caused Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) to stir. "Detainees are entitled to a full eight hours of sleep and cannot be awakened for interrogation," he said. "The average inmate gained about 15 pounds, was receiving better medical care by far, dental care, you name it: being given a Koran, they pray five times a day, there's an arrow on the floor in each of the rooms . . . so they know which way Mecca is so they can pray accordingly."

Sensenbrenner responded with a deep cough. Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) set about building a straw man. "We just heard that not guaranteeing eight hours of sleep in Guantanamo has been interpreted by some as inhumane," he said.

"Who?" demanded Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), for nobody had said such a thing.

But Feeney was just warming up. "There is not an American mom that is guaranteed eight hours of sleep every night. There are very few people in the business world . . . who are guaranteed eight hours of sleep." Further, he added: "There are suggestions that playing loud music is inhumane treatment. . . . The bottom line is, that means virtually every teenager I know is torturing mom and dad."

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) appealed for reason: "Although I'm sure parents do feel tortured by their teenagers, I don't think that's in the Constitution."

Nadler raised the ante. "Sleep deprivation [for] eight hours? How about 40 hours?" he asked. "How about waterboarding? How about holding people and subjecting them to hypothermia?"

"Absurd! Absurd!" heckled Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), who accused the Democrats of "hyperbole."

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) seconded the "absurd" accusation. "We are facing sleep deprivation here in this Congress at the shutdown of every single session," he cracked.

Then again, the quality of the debate didn't really matter. The committee's votes yesterday were determined less by argument than by attrition.

With one Republican member out of town, two other Republicans siding with the Democrats and two more occupied at another hearing, the majority party was in the minority. Democrats had an early chance to replace the Bush legislation with McCain's anti-torture proposal -- but that plan lost when two Florida Democrats, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Robert Wexler, missed the vote because they were at a news conference next door on Medicare.

An hour later, it was the GOP's turn to have truancy problems. Missing Reps. Henry Hyde (Ill.) and Elton Gallegly (Calif.), the Republicans watched the Bush legislation go down to defeat -- forcing Sensenbrenner to devote two hours of parliamentary maneuvering to reverse the outcome.

Democrats tried to cement their victory with a motion to adjourn. When that failed, they walked out of the room to deny Sensenbrenner a quorum, but the chairman fought off that challenge, too. Finally, after Sensenbrenner managed to herd enough Republicans into the room, he held a series of four votes to undo the Bush proposal's defeat, overruling all Democrats' objections.

"Point of order!"

"The point of order is not well taken," Sensenbrenner replied.

"I suggest the absence of a quorum!"

"The chair rules that to be dilatory," the chairman answered.

The same could have been said of much of the debate.