One hand clapping

The Louisville Courier-Journal's editorial on the agreement between Bush and Senators Warner, McCain, and Graham gets it exactly right:

Under the arrangement, the Senate will not accept the President's demands that the Geneva Conventions be formally reinterpreted, endorse "aggressive interrogation" (i.e., torture) or legalize sham military tribunals that the Supreme Court had struck down.

Unfortunately, however, what emerged provides too little protection against a president whose word cannot be trusted and who feels no obligation to live up to the spirit of an agreement with Congress.

The Senate bargain ill-advisedly gives the President room to interpret key parts of the Geneva accords through executive orders -- an invitation to sweeping mischief with this administration. And only hours after the Senate deal was brokered, the White House was using differences between Senate and House approaches to suggest that Senate restrictions on the use of secret evidence in military trials might not be binding.

In short, the prospect is still for trials of such blatant unfairness as to render them instantly illegitimate in the eyes of the world (and many Americans).

Of course, this congressional ballet has never really been about trials or terrorism. The only consideration that requires action now is the urgent Republican strategy of forcing Democrats to vote for or against the President on a supposed security issue, before the election.

Democrats, who stood aside while the GOP senators carried the fight to Mr. Bush, must now decide whether to step into a trap by trying to delay the legislation with a filibuster.

That would carry political risks. But it also would constitute leadership -- and thus might answer the biggest doubt about the Democrats.