The Senate Judiciary Committee today began hearing testimony on this nation’s detention of enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay. After the MSM pedaled the tales of Koran desecration and Amnesty International’s concurrent labeling of Gitmo as the “American gulag,” I suppose it was only a matter if time before our illustrious Senators would smell a photo-op. And so the Senate Judiciary Committee, the same publicity coterie that can’t seem to process judicial nominations, is on the job. “Congress has its work cut out for it as we look at a very, very tough issue on how we handle detainees," said committee Chairman Arlen Specter. Hmmm.
Let’s review the work of Congress as found in that quaint museum piece known as the Constitution. “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” There is not even a pretense of legislative function going on here. The Senate has absolutely nothing to say about any decisions stemming from the war and enforcement powers of the Executive. Is Congress considering passing some relevant legislation? There are no bills or resolutions currently on the floor of the Senate relating to Gitmo. What does Specter expect to offer as the fruit of this inquiry? Will he order Gitmo shut down and all the detainees freed? No. Imperial utterances are reserved to the Supreme Court. The best Specter and his fellow publicity hounds can offer is their official opinion, which is utterly without value to their constituents. However, it gets them some face time on CNN.
The Senate is justified in holding hearings on the UN scandal because Congress controls the account that writes the check to Annan’s global pyramid scheme. Also, there is already legislation proposed that would tie UN dues to UN reform. The Senate is justified in taking testimony about the stability of Social Security since there are varying opinions and some of the economics is no doubt heady. But the Senate simply has no business haling the Secretary of Defense and other military leaders to Capitol Hill to account for an Executive decision. If the current statutes dealing with enemy combatants are inadequate, then legislate. Otherwise, sit down. There is work to be done besides bolstering one's reelection campaign.