CANDIDATE SERIES: Chris Dodd
17 September 2007 2:34 pm by Taylor Marsh
TM NOTE: The guest post below is by Chris
Dodd. He’s the first presidential candidate to post himself and I’m honored he understands the importance of reaching out to my readers personally. Joe Biden’s campaign team has posted twice. Clinton campaign will definitely join in sometime in the future.
The Edwards and Obama camps have accepted, but they have not communicated with
me on details recently. I’m thrilled that candidate Dodd
took the time to reach out himself. Please show your appreciation, however you can.
To add: Chris Bowers over at Open Left has a post up citing “Exclusive Habeas Corpus Polling” that is definitely worth a look.
CANDIDATE SERIES: Chris Dodd
The Fight to Restore Habeas Corpus
expert guest post by Senator Chris
Dodd
Democratic candidate
for president
 |
| VIDEO: Chris Dodd Habeaus Corpus |
First, thank you for providing me with the opportunity to share my views with
your readers Taylor. When offered a chance to guest blog here on any subject,
the choice of subject was easy: restoring the Constitution. I’ve said it before
but the issue is too important to not repeat here: I pledge that if elected
I will restore the Constitution of the United States in my first hour in office.
I won’t wait until then to take action and I’m committed to leading to restore
the Constitution from my place in the Senate. This week I am working with my
colleague Patrick Leahy to restore habeas
corpus and I’ll need your help.
But first I want to tell you why the Constitution is something that I value
so dearly and why I’m making restoring it a central part of my campaign for
the presidency.
I was raised in a household were the rule of law was treated as the most important
issue facing a government (my father, Thomas Dodd, was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg
trials). Every day, I carry with me a copy of the Constitution of United States,
given to me twenty-six years ago by my colleague Robert Byrd. And yet today,
I am running for President on a platform of restoring the Constitution. I had
never dreamed that the day would come when a candidate for our nation’s highest
office would have to campaign on restoring the balance of powers, the rule of
law set forth in our most cherished document.
Yet here I am. Here we are.
Last fall the Congress passed what I believe is the most harmful piece of
legislation since I first took office in 1976, the Military Commissions Act.
It allows evidence obtained through torture to be used in trial, denies individuals
the right to counsel, the right to invoke the Geneva Conventions. Indeed, with
passage of the MCA, Congress removed the single most important and effective
safeguard of liberty man has known:
The right of habeas corpus,
permitting prisoners to be brought before court to determine whether their detainment
is lawful.
In removing habeas corpus protections, the MCA affirmed vengeance as a tool
in fighting terrorism – discarding sixty years of precedent and respect for
the rule of law.
Though I voted against the MCA and spoke out strongly against it before it
was passed, I still have regrets about how the bill came into law. When all
the candidates were asked about a mistake they had made at the Des Moines debate,
I honestly answered
that my decision not to pursue a filibuster of the Military Commissions Act
in the fall of 2006 was something that I deeply regretted. I said, “I can’t
think of a worse vote we cast, to walk away from the Constitution of the United
States.”
This administration would have the American people believe that the war on
terrorism requires a choice between protecting America or upholding the basic
tenets upon which the country was founded. As I know from my father’s
experience at Nuremberg and you know as well, the choice between moral authority
and security is a false choice. Our moral authority is critical to our security
– and the loss of it these last six years is one of the reasons I believe
America is more vulnerable today.
Watching our country rollback the Great Writ, define torture downward, walk
away from the Geneva Conventions, and lose our moral standing in the world has
been terribly painful for any concerned citizen (a definition that easily includes
the entirety of the netroots). But in spite of these trials, we can still stand
up for our Constitution and restore America’s standing in the world by continuing
to fight for the values and principles we’ve seen slide away under the Bush
administration.
We have an opportunity to pass legislation this week which will reverse one
of the most damaging parts of the Military Commissions Act and put us on a path
towards restoring the Constitution.
We’ll start at the top: restoring habeas corpus. This week’s debate on the
Defense Authorization bill will include a vote on the Leahy-Specter-Dodd
Habeas Corpus Restoration Act as an amendment.
Congress will need to hear your voices as this debate takes place. I’ll keep
fighting, but Senator Leahy and I need you by our side. Sign up to be a citizen
co-sponsor of the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act as an amendment to the Defense
Authorization bill.
Go to http://restore-habeas.org, add your name to the list of Americans who
want their Constitution back, and tell your family, friends, and neighbors to
do the same. You can also call my colleagues in the Senate and tell your Senators
that you want them to vote to restore habeas. The Senate switchboard is (202)
224-3121.
Together, we will defend our nation’s founding principles and restore our
moral standing in the world.
