Dubya Threatens Veto of McCain's Anti-Torture Legislation

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050725/ap_on_go_co/congress_detainees

GOP Senators Push Detainee Treatment Rules
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
47 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans pushed ahead Monday with legislation that would set rules for the treatment and interrogation of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody, despite a White House veto threat.

The Bush administration, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, is working to kill the amendments that GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina want to tack onto a bill setting Defense Department policy for next year.

McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, and Graham, who spent 20 years as an Air Force lawyer, introduced the legislation Monday. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., has endorsed the effort.

[...]

Cheney met with the three Republican lawmakers just off the Senate floor for about 30 minutes Thursday evening. That followed an administration statement that President Bush's advisers would recommend a veto of the overall bill if amendments were added that restricted the president's ability to conduct the war on terrorism and protect Americans...

and that's how they'll frame it. Any effort to stop torture is unpatriotic...

but still, we've reached the point where even common-sense legislation from the Preznit's own party members(e.g. documenting all prisoners with Red Cross, standardizing handling of prisoners according to the U.S. Army Field manual) is even threatened.

So, we now have two veto threats on record, from the guy who hasn't vetoed shit ever, against measures that a sufficient amount of Repubs & Democrats agree on: stem cell research & torture.

if you want two key issues to campaign on, there ya go.