If you are a fan of consistency and coherence today’s a good day to stay in bed. On the one hand, we had FBI Director Robert Mueller agreeing that concerns about transferring Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. are real and that sticking them in U.S. prisons isn’t a foolproof solution. But then you had the Undersecretary of Defense exercising the power of positive thinking: “I am optimistic that all of us will take more than we have agreed [upon] so far. . . This is a challenge that will require all of us to step up and make a hard choice.”

But the Senate isn’t so optimistic and voted 90-6 to bar the use of funds put toward moving Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. Harry Reid voted “yes.” Diane Feinstein voted “yes.” But Feinstein thinks moving them to prisons would be fine. And Reid is now backtracking on his “no way, no how” comments from yesterday.

And the kicker comes from Robert Gibbs:

I don’t doubt that the President–and I think he’ll say this tomorrow–that we’ve made some hasty decisions that are now going to take some time to unwind. And closing Guantanamo Bay obviously is one of those decisions.

But we’re not done. The New York Times reports on the most transparent administration in history:

An unreleased Pentagon report provides new details concluding that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has returned to terrorism or militant activity, according to administration officials.

[. . .]

Two administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the report was being held up by Defense Department employees fearful of upsetting the White House, at a time when even Congressional Democrats have begun to show misgivings over Mr. Obama’s plan to close Guantánamo.

(Yeah we wouldn’t want to upset the White House with facts.)

Let’s see if we can figure this out. Before he knew much of anything about Guantanamo or had a plan for how to treat the detainees, Obama announced Guantanamo’s closing, hoping to impress his friends on the Left and overseas. But it’s hugely unpopular — so unpopular you have 90 senators (more than you usually get for tributes to National Girl Scout Day and the like) scrambling to get out of the way of the voters who would descend on their offices en masse if this ever resulted in terrorists coming to the U.S. The administration wants to strong-arm and pressure lawmakers into staying on board and, left to their own devices, liberal lawmakers would happily oblige. But they can’t — because, after all, the majority of voters in this country think this is nuts. But they still haven’t a clue what to do with these people. So you have a meandering, equivocating performance today as Democrats try to balance their loyalty to the president and their sense of self-preservation. In that fight, it’s easy to predict the winner.

del.icio.us

Google

Facebook

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 5:51 PM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.