Patrick Radden Keefe – Rule of Law, Patriotism, and Making the Argument for Civilian Terror Trial (Taking Note Blog Century Foundation)

Patrick Radden Keefe. “Rule of Law, Patriotism, and Making the Argument for Civilian Terror Trial,” Taking Note Blog Century Foundation, February 17, 2010

"One much-reviled political tactic famously employed by President George W. Bush and his surrogates was to play offense against critics by implying that the very act of questioning administration policy was somehow unpatriotic. I never thought I’d say this, but as the Republican hysteria over the prospect of trying terrorists in federal courts intensifies and weak-kneed Democrats show real signs of folding on what history may judge to be a make-or-break issue for the Obama administration, the president and his advisers need to take a page from the Bush play-book, go on the offensive, and call the increasingly craven rhetoric of Dick Cheney, Lindsey Graham and others what it is: a politically-driven, deeply unpatriotic suggestion that the American system of federal justice spelled out in Article III of the Constitution is simply not up to the task."

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