In our divisive political culture, there are seemingly very few issues that bring the right and left wings of the country together, but President Obama's recent signing of the National Defense Authorization Act appears to be one of those issues.
The anger that both progressives and some Tea Party members have with the legislation is the belief that the bill signed by the president on New Year's Eve authorizes the indefinite detention of citizens captured on U.S. soil.
Critics charge that the NDAA codifies the president’s ability to detain a U.S. citizen captured on American soil until the war on terrorism is declared over. The White House says that the law doesn’t specifically allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens, but admits that it doesn’t specifically ban the practice either.
At last night's Myrtle Beach GOP debate, Mitt Romney said he supports the legislation, ticking off those Libertarian-oriented Republicans who have never been big fans of the former Massachusetts governor.
This article appears in Jan 12-18, 2012.