Sen. Graham co-sponsors legislation banning item made with “sweatshop labor”

Sen. Graham is co-sponsoring legislation with 5 of his colleagues that would ban imports from factories that utilize sweatshop labor. He says of his support for the bill “If you’re a business person engaged in exploiting people to get a better market share, I hope you get fined, I hope you get sued. That’s not the way to build up an economy. That’s not the way to have global trade.”The legislation, S. 367 (pdf) is Sponsored by Byron Dorgan a Democrat from North Dakota would impose a $10,000 fine on any company caught importing goods made in a sweatshop.
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Byron Dorgan: Press Release
Bill Summary & Status

A Question of Values

America was born of a noble idea of some very intelligent men. Americans are born into a tradition and taught a set of values that they celebrate of Independence Day. Our values are liberty, justice, and rule of law. We praise these values, but lately we seem to have forgotten them in the fight with the terrorists. Terrorists work to change values by violence rather than peaceful means. We work to change things by peaceful means and only use the military when necessary. We’re told that this is a different kind of war with new rules and therefore our paradigm must shift.

How does the fight effect our values? What is the role of fear in this change? How do we maintain our traditional values while fighting an enemy that knows no bounds? These questions and many others are difficult to answer. However, we would do best if we were to remember the words of Benjamin Franklin: Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

The Graham Principle: American Values and the Rule of Law

We have been fighting a battle with terrorists since 9/11/2001 and Sen. Graham has been consistent in his crusade to have us fight the war according to the principles that have made this country great: justice and the rule of law. These values are the most important, especially in a time of war. Lindsey is not only a Senator leading the charge for legal military tribunals but is appearantly fighting for the interests of the Judge Advocate General Corps and the military that has allowed him to earn his degrees and support his sister so she could get her college degree.

He was indignant after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke in the media. He was not about to let us look like our enemy because we would lose the moral highground. He even told Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during a hearing that the way we fight the war on terror is about us and not them. He supported the Detainee Treatment Act which banned “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” of detainees. He also said that we needed to follow the rule of law in treatment of the terror suspects.

Currently he is fighting for congress to approve a bill that would create military commissions that would be modeled on the Uniform Code of Military Justice. This is in the face of criticism from conservative commentators that he is the leader in the “terrorist rights” mmovement. No, he is just trying to put the rule of law in its proper place with regard to this battle.

Another example of his commitment to the rule of law and proper treatement of detainees is blocking the nomination of William James Haynes III for the 4th Circuit of Appeals. His opposition to the nominee is based on sound law, timeless values, and immutable principles. We do not torture, the Defense Department General Counsel should protect the interests of the Defense Department, and above all else the Judge Advocates should have an imput into detention and trial policy because they are the experts and not the political appointees. Most of the pertinent question comes from the JAG memos,a working group report that voiced concerns over the policies being promulgated by the Justice Department and supported by the Defense Department.

He is also placing language in a defense authorization bill that would grant the top Judge Advocate in each branch of the service a thid star and therefore place them on equal footing with some of the executive civillian employees. He has also written a bill that woul place the civilian contractors working with the military in the military chain of comand. These initiatives are both in resistance to the administration.

He has shown his willingness to protect our military members, follow the rule of law, and live by American values and this is what makes him special.

Sen. Lindsey Graham: Independent and Conscientious

The day starts early, 7 or 8 with him in his office in the Russell Senate Office Building near Constitution Ave and C Street. He sits at a finely polished cherry wood desk in a high-backed soft black swivel chair working diligently on constituent requests and legislative priorities. There is a buzzer in this office that lets him know when a vote takes place on the floor of the United States Senate, “the world’s most deliberative body.” Today he works on preparations for the Confirmation hearings on Judge Alberto Gonzales to Attorney General of the United States. He plans to grill Judge Gonzales on things like the Geneva Convention, which as an Air Force Judge Advocate he knows well. Also on his desk this day is Social Security reform an issue that he took on as a member of the House and won the senate seat on this issue.

Now, he confidently strides to the Dirksen Senate Office Building for the hearing, smiling and extolling his pleasant, good natured character. Of course the hearing he is attending is a Confirmation hearing on “Executive Nominations”, specifically that of Alberto Gonzales. Graham ignited an exchange with Judge Gonzales and a confrontation with conservative talk show host Sean Hannity

Grilling Gonzales
Sen. Graham: And to those who think that the Geneva Convention is a nicety or that taking torture off the table is naive and a sign of weakness, my answer to them is the following, that Secretary Powell has been in combat, and I think that you weaken yourself as a nation when you play cute and become more like your enemy instead of like who you want to be. So I am publicly going to say that the lawyers in the Secretary of State’s Office, while I may disagree with them, and while I may disagree with Secretary Powell, were advocating the best sense of who we are as a people. Now having said that, the Department of Justice memo that we are all talking about now, in my opinion, Judge Gonzales, is not a little bit wrong, but entirely wrong in its focus because it excluded another body of law called the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

And, Mr. Chairman, I have asked since October for memos from the working group by judge advocate general representatives that commented on this Department of Justice policy, and I have yet to get those memos. I have yet read those memos. They’re classified for some bizarre reason. But generally speaking those memos talk about that if you go down the road suggested, you’re making a U-turn as a nation, that you’re going to lose the moral high ground.

Judge Gonzales: I would respectfully disagree with your statement that we’re becoming more like our enemy.

Sen. Graham: Can I suggest to you that I didn’t say that we are like our enemy; that the worst thing we did, when you compare it to Saddam Hussein, was a good day there. But we are not like who we want to be and who we have been. And that’s the point I am trying to make when you start trying to look a torture statutes and you look at ways around the spirit of the law, than you’re losing the moral high ground.

The Confrontation
“That’s too damn bad!” Graham emphatically stated on the Sean Hannity radio show later in the day. Mr. Hannity had touched a nerve by criticizing Sen. Graham’s exchange with Judge Gonzales regarding the Geneva Convention. He is a military appellate judge and has a great respect for the law. “They had an honest disagreement,” according to Mr. Grisham the show’s producer, however, this “honest disagreement” caused at least one listener to e-mail Sen. Graham to register disappointment. “I listened to your remarks today & on the Sean Hannity radio program today. I must tell you that I am very disappointed in your comments & attitude today. Not only were you quite cavalier in your remarks regarding this issue (“That’s too damn bad!”) on Sean’s show.” This respondent was from Sacramento, CA.

Bipartisan Working Group
“What they’re worried about is that they’d embrace a particular plan and the other side will demagogue the hell out of it.” This prophetic statement Lindsey Graham made came true, even though the President has yet to endorse a plan.

However he feels there needs to be sacrifice for the idea to work and he is leading the way. “Why should I expect someone in this job to be braver than I want to be?” he asked in an interview. “I’m asking both parties to sacrifice their ideology for the common good.” Graham is working with a small group of Republicans and Democrats to find a bipartisan solution to the problem. “He’s playing an important role. He seems to have the guts to make a proposal,” according to Senate colleague Joe Lieberman, a Democrat.

Independent and Rambunctious
An independent, and some would say rambunctious streak showed itself early, as Graham worked to overthrow Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in 1997. In the end Gingrich survived the coup but not before Graham had the last say: “I can’t intimidating.” This caused a laugh around the room and even Gingrich managed a smile. This was not the first time Graham had drawn attention too his small stature. In response to being asked to comment on the late Strom Thurmond: “I’m 5-foot-7 and about 150 pounds. I don’t think you’ll see me rassling anybody to the floor. But people in South Carolina do like their Senators to go up there and shake it up a bit.” However, the small statured Graham lettered in wrestling when in high school.