PEMBERTON, N.J., June 13 -- Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) on Friday forcefully sided with President Bush in condemning the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to grant access to federal courts for the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, potentially muddying his reputation as a critic of the administration's approach to treatment of suspected terrorists...
At a time when McCain is eager to distance himself from Bush on a variety of issues, the Supreme Court decision forces a public discussion in an area where he and the president fully agree: that allowing detainees access to U.S. courts will undermine the fight against global terrorism.
That discussion has the potential to be politically damaging for McCain, who has strongly opposed the administration on the separate issue of how detainees should be treated. Moderates who are key to McCain's strategy for winning the presidency may be taken aback by what they perceive as a softening of the senator's stand against Bush's torture policy.
Tom Malinowski, who serves as Washington advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said voters will probably see a contradiction between McCain's efforts to prevent torture and close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and "his continued support for the underlying legal principle that Guantanamo stands for, namely that detainees should not have access to a normal judicial process."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/13/ST2008061303436.html