Last year, Congressional Democrats allowed the Bush administration to ram through one of the worst laws in the nation’s history — the Military Commissions Act of 2006. This year, the Democrats pledged to use their new majority to begin repairing the profound damage the law has done to the nation’s justice system. But there are disturbing signs their pledge may fall victim to the same tactical political calculations and Bush administration propagandising that allowed this scandalous law to pass in the first place.

President Bush had turned habeas corpus into a partisan issue by declaring that the prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, even innocent ones, do not deserve a hearing. Lawmakers who

objected were painted as friends of terrorists. Let’s be clear. There is nothing “conservative” or “tough on terrorism” in selectively stripping people of their rights. Suspending habeas corpus is an extreme notion on the radical fringes of democratic philosophy.

The Democratic majority has a long list of wrongs to right from six years of Bush’s leadership. We are sympathetic to their concerns about finding a way to revive habeas corpus that won’t be subject to a presidential veto of a larger bill. But lawmakers sometimes have to stand on principle and trust the voters to understand. This is one of those times.