Democrat about face on Gitmo

Kirsten Powers:

HOUSE and Senate Democrats waxed hysterical about the urgency of closing down Guantanamo Bay when George W. Bush was president. Now that it's their responsibility, the urgency has miraculously abated.

Yesterday, in an unusual sign of bipartisanship, the Senate (following the House's lead) voted 90-6 to strip funding to close the Guantanamo Bay prison from the war supplemental legislation. It was a clear capitulation by Democrats to GOP attacks: The House GOP had introduced a bill, the "Keep Terrorists Out of America Act," prohibiting the transfer of Gitmo detainees to a state without permission from that state's governor and Legislature.

Democrats are saying they still want to close the prison, but they need to hear a plan from President Obama. So, today, Obama will give a speech outlining a "hefty part" of his plan for Gitmo.

But unless he is going to provide spine transplants to the Democrats, Obama is looking at an uphill battle.

What's perhaps the most troubling about Dem behavior on the Hill is that while they screamed about closing Gitmo, they seem never to have considered where the prisoners would go.

But it's not like they didn't know it was an issue. At a 2005 Senate hearing, Sen. Patrick Leahy grilled Bush officials on just that subject.

...

Shazammm! You mean if we close Gitmo, we might have to bring them to states where Democrats are elected? Why didn't they think of that? It is probably because they were having too much fun bashing President Bush and not thinking about the consequences as long as he was giving them cover by resisting their nonsense. Perhaps they should blame Bush for that too. It seems to be their pattern for avoiding responsibility.