Blackburn: Only Tennessee Lawmaker To Support Torture
Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Bob Tuke blasted U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn for being the only member of Tennessee’s congressional delegation to vote against Senator John McCain’s ban on torture. In a vote late Wednesday, Blackburn opposed a largely symbolic proposal for the U.S. House of Representatives to endorse the Senate-passed plan to prohibit cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign terrorism suspects. The House proposal ultimately passed, despite Blackburn’s objection, by a vote of 308 to 122.
On Thursday, President Bush reversed his longstanding opposition to the idea and endorsed McCain’s torture ban. According to the Washington Post, debate over McCain’s proposal was viewed as a “question of taking a broad stand for or against torture after international condemnations of the alleged abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and other U.S.-controlled facilities.”
Tuke, a Marine veteran who served in Vietnam, lauded all five Democrats and the three Republicans in Tennessee’s congressional delegation who voted in favor of the torture ban, but said Blackburn’s extremist position speaks poorly of her commitment to representing the values of Tennesseans.
“Torture is a patently un-American practice,” Tuke said. “It’s one thing to support the President, but it’s something entirely different to be the only member of our state’s congressional delegation to go along with a truly extremist position.”
He added: “Before she casts her next vote, Congressman Blackburn needs to step back and take a long look in the mirror.”
For more information on Wednesday’s House vote, check out the Associated Press report. Or go to the House clerk’s web site to view the roll call vote.
