Democrats tortured by Gitmo closing

Politico:

Republicans may have finally found a winning issue: Guantanamo.

While Democrats are divided over allocating money for the prison’s closure and as the Obama administration struggles with how to actually close the Guantanamo Bay prison, Republicans are having no such nuanced internal debate. Congressional Republicans have stoked parochial fears of releasing Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. mainland, and GOP aides privately acknowledge that this issue is one of the few on which they believe they have a real edge on the Obama administration.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), for example, is pitching an appropriations amendment that would prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to transport the prisoners to U.S. soil. On the Senate side, Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss has said he plans to introduce a similar measure. House GOP leaders also plan to introduce a bill Thursday called the Keep Terrorists Out of America Act.

“My first plan is to have an up-or-down vote in the Appropriations Committee [Thursday],” Tiahrt said. “They are known, dangerous criminals who have vowed to destroy our way of life.”

Senate Republicans stepped up the rhetorical game Wednesday when they released a video that shows the haunting faces of terrorist suspects and then cuts away to the welcome signs for various states, warning viewers that these prisoners could be transferred to their neighborhood any day.

“Moving terror to Kansas? Not on my watch,” Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts says in the video.

And Republicans have pounced on the decision by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) earlier this week to withhold the $81 million in federal funds President Barack Obama had requested to relocate the prisoners. Obey said the White House had not provided sufficient details about Obama’s plan for closing the detention facility.

“We understand that over on the House side, they’ve deleted the money. That doesn’t eliminate the issue. The issue remains: What will be done with these prisoners?” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday.

“The American people do not support the release of these terrorists at Gitmo. And the administration, in asking for money, needs to tell us exactly what it would spend that money for, or I predict to you that the Congress will not support the appropriation that has been requested,” added Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).

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Voters also oppose the Democrats on the torture debate too. The issue certainly plays to the Democrats weakness and they also have to know that any terrorist attack on the US will be blamed on these policies. The idea of releasing terrorist into the US may appeal to Obama's sense of fairness, but it does not appeal to the voters sense of safety. Even putting them in prison in the US is not appealing to the voters in the US. It was Obama playing to the liberal Eurowimps and not to what American voters want.