I wonder if the GOP would allow the amendment, and then remove it in conference after the election.

 Unbelievable that any Democrat would be a holdout on something as fundamental to Western civilization as habeas corpus. Unbelievable that any educated American would even have to think about this.

 Simply unbelievable.

 Are red-state residents that far gone that they don't even think THIS is necessary for a free society? This ain't no tax bill.

 We entrust our elected representatives to do the heavy lifting, to look under the hood, to carefully examine and evaluate ALL legislation and ensure that it conforms with the American values expressed in our 220-year-old Constitution.

 And this is what we're getting. "Representatives" who aren't even bothering to READ what's being put in front of them. You're all doing a heckuva job, guys.

 I am embarrassed and ashamed that I share a country with people who so detest the idea of individual freedom from tyranny. People who trample upon the legacy of such great patriots like Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and so many others. Modern pseudo-Americans who, with these attitudes, spit upon those and other great men who risked everything so that they could be free from tyranny.

 The Republicans, and a few scattered Democrats, have leveled the ultimate insult and the ultimate bodyblow to the ideals expressed by the thousands of early Americans who died for liberty.

 Maybe God can forgive them. I can't.

Am I high or does that cite not appear in the linked article? Was it updated? I would want to give Smith the rare kudos for anything principled, but when I read the article and searched for that passage, it wasn't there.

Did it go by the boards at some point?

?

  Have they all vanished into the mist?

 Did they ever exist to begin with?

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Prudence indeed, will dictate, that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.

This is the heritage that the Republican-led House with 34 Democrats trashed this evening. As Jefferson wrote All Men are created equal and have been endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights including Life and Liberty. Torture, indefinite detention, no habeas corpus or due process is un-American from its very founding.

Since Cheney can break the tie, you'd need 51 votes, which means all Democrats plus six Republicans.

As best I can tell, that's impossible without someone like Pat Roberts breaking ranks.

I suppose you could hope to sustain a filibuster while letting the Red State Dems -- Landrieu, Nelson, the other Nelson -- vote for cloture.

5 SEC. 7. HABEAS CORPUS MATTERS.
6 (a) IN GENERAL.--Section 2241 of title 28, United
7 States Code, is amended by striking both the subsection
8 (e) added by section 1005(e)(1) of Public Law 109-148
9 (119 Stat. 2742) and the subsection (e) added by added
10 by section 1405(e)(1) of Public Law 109-163 (119 Stat.
11 3477) and inserting the following new subsection (e):
12 ``(e)(1) No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdic
13 tion to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas
14 corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the
15 United States who has been determined by the United
16 States to have been properly detained as an enemy com
17 batant or is awaiting such determination.
18 ``(2) Except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3)
19 of section 1005(e) of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005
20 (10 U.S.C. 801 note), no court, justice, or judge shall have
21 jurisdiction to hear or consider any other action against
22 the United States or its agents relating to any aspect of
23 the detention, transfer, treatment, trial, or conditions of
24 confinement of an alien who is or was detained by the
25 United States and has been determined by the United

1 States to have been properly detained as an enemy com
2 batant or is awaiting such determination.''.
3 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.--The amendment made by
4 subsection (a) shall take effect on the date of the enact5
ment of this Act, and shall apply to all cases, without ex6
ception, pending on or after the date of the enactment of
7 this Act which relate to any aspect of the detention, trans8
fer, treatment, trial, or conditions of detention of an alien
9 detained by the United States since September 11, 2001.

Matt, I'm not sure you need 50 here.  The other side needs a strong 60.   Thats a harder challenge- I think there was a story in the WP that Lindsey is working on some secret amendment because he is worried he does not have the 60. This is a historic bill for all the Senators.  If the perception is that the media are going to wake up and point out the historical significance, 60 is going to dissapear rapidly in the distance. On the Specter haebeas amendment, De Wine now has a political opportunity to stand up for haebeas and castigate Brown for his house vote.  Self interest starts to play in the decision.  Jackass that he is, Santorum is unemployed come November without a hail mary pass.  If this thing can be kept alive for another 24 hours , I think the bill will collapse.  Once habeas becomes about every US Citizen, and not about terrorists, this thing is DOA.

Finally, Specter does the right thing.