The United States Senate voted late last night on whether to prohibit civilian trials of enemy combatants (the Ayotte Amendment) and the results followed typically along party lines, with few exceptions: it was rejected 52-47 with Democrats Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson siding with Ayotte and with Republicans Mark Kirk and Rand Paul siding against her.
The vote is disappointing, considering we have seen numerous civilian trials of terrorists quickly deteriorate, but what is more saddening from a political standpoint is the opposition of Rand Paul, who was supposed to be saner than his father on foreign affairs, oppose this commonsense amendment in a time of authorized war.
But don't worry - the Obama Administration cannot use this to hold civilian trials for Gitmo detainees, due to Congress prohibiting any funds being spent to house them on U.S. soil last year. It just means if there's a plot by al-Qaida terrorists on education visa's to bring down the Sears Tower and we stop them in time, we can't stop Eric Holder from treating them like common thieves.
What say you?
P.S. - What do you say to the Republicans trading Rand Paul for Joe Lieberman? I'm game.
I say that suspected and actual terrorists should all have a trial.
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