Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) lambasted transparency advocates at a press conference Tuesday, when they renewed their promise to bring Senate business to a halt until their bill blocking the release of detainee photographs becomes law.

“We’re not going to do any more business in the Senate,” Graham said, his face flushed red. “Nothing’s going forward until we get this right.”

The duo’s bill, which would allow the Pentagon to exempt Bush-era photos from the Freedom of Information Act, was stripped from the conference version of the war supplemental Monday night. In anticipation of trouble, Lieberman and Graham had already inserted the bill into the tobacco-regulatory legislation currently on the floor of the Senate.

By turns sober and furious, the two senators vowed again Tuesday to vote against — and, if possible, filibuster — the troop-funding bill and all other legislation until they get their way. They equated the weapons supplied by the war supplemental spending bill with detainee photos that they said would serve as a recruiting tool for al-Qaida and a weapon against U.S. troops.

“If these photos see the light of day, it will be a death sentence to some serving abroad,” Graham said. The removal of the photo amendment, he said, “is one of the most outrageous and irresponsible acts in the history of the Congress.” He said the initial response to the Abu Ghraib scandal was necessary and the punishments meted out were appropriate.

Lieberman, for his part, dismissed release of the photos as “sheer voyeurism” and “disclosure without a purpose.” The Detainee Treatment Act and the Military Commissions Act, Lieberman said, are ample enough evidence that the system has been sufficiently reformed.

“Transparency in government is an American value, but it is not without limits, no more than any of the values embraced in our Constitution,” Lieberman said. “The transparency in this case is needless and dangerous transparency.”

Graham said there is consensus among many senators, military officials and diplomats about the need to pass the bill. Even the White House is in support, he said, and helped them draft the bill, remaining supportive of it in conference. Both senators dismissed House Democrats’ concerns about the bill as “naive” opinions held by a “fringe minority.” By Jeff Muskus for The Huffington Post. Click here to read more.
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