1115.org

If Tuesday’s teaser-trailer mention of the confirmation hearings for Pentagon General Counsel William Haynes caught your attention, you’ll be glad to hear that things are getting interesting.

Haynes has been nominated by President Bush to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Haynes had cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2004 (before the Abu Ghraib scandal hit the fan), but he was not approved by the full Senate before the end of the first Bush term. The president renominated him last year.

Sen. Lindsey Graham has come out sharply against the Haynes nomination. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are united against Haynes. It is, however, too early to tell whether Graham will join them to vote down the nomination:

At a Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) said that Pentagon General Counsel William J. Haynes II had pushed for (harsh interrogation methods at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay) over the objections of top uniformed military lawyers who considered the policy process a “sham.”

The result, Graham told reporters after the hearing, was “legal confusion” that contributed to the scandal at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison — and the attendant courts-martial and other career damage for those held responsible.

Noting that the U.S. commander in Iraq during Abu Ghraib, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, has seen his career stall, Graham said, “The question is whether enough things went wrong on [Haynes's] watch that he needs to be held accountable.”

With Democrats united against Haynes, Graham’s position is crucial because without his support Haynes could have a hard time getting out of the Judiciary Committee, which has 10 Republicans and nine Democrats.
[…]
While conservatives have accused Graham of waging a “silent filibuster” against the nominee, Graham insisted yesterday that “I’m not holding up any nomination.”