Democrats are still wimps. Good to know.

Q. Can't GOP lawmakers pretend to be grown-ups on this?

A. No.

This has been another edition of....

"Can't GOP lawmakers pretend to be grown-ups on this?"

They are a reflection of the people who elected them. Ponder that and be afraid, be very afraid.

steve, this is of a piece with the entire "war on terror" worldview in which the "terrorists" are the worst, baddest, most outlaw ever, a challenge beyond that which any society has ever confronted.

This is one of those things that's just asking for a satirical response.

I'm envisioning someone going around to the communities near where Big Bad Islamofascist Terrorists are already imprisoned on U.S. soil, and asking them how concerned they are about the terrorists that the Bush and Clinton Administrations placed in their midst, i.e. at the local SuperMax prison.

Remember the Rethug Motto:

The only thing to fear is the loss of fear itself!

The dumbocraps appear to continue to have fear of the rethug party!

It appears truly hopeless to believe that among the 57 dumbocrap senators (other than Russ Feingold & Bernie Sanders) have even the capability of growing the gonads required to confront rethugs.

Why don't Dems get Republicans to vote on whether other terrorists currently serving time, as well as who have served their time and now run free among us like G. Gordon Liddy should be deported?

There does not appear to be any learning curve in the United States Senate, regardless of party. In Pentagon Dollars, $80 million probably won't break the bank, however, it would put a big dent in Halliburton's or Blackwater's bottom line if Sec Gates were to shift discretionary Iraqi contractor funds from electrocuting the troops in the shower to transferring prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to the SuperMax in Colorado.

President Obama must be some kind of super human nice guy; if I were in his shoes, by now I would have David Plouff out in the states looking for Democrats to field in Democratic primaries, and I would be consulting Joe Biden about who he would recomment to replace Harry Reid. Is there any advantage for a Democratic President to have a Democratic Majority in the Senate?

"Consider a Congressman, then consider an idiot. Ah, but I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain, 1872

Wow, that's interesting. Can you please point me to a "good" liberal blog? I've been trying to find a coherent explication of the positions, but all I see is a mass of confusion and half-developed arguments fused with good (or ill) intentions. I know there are good liberal books out there, but, I've yet to read a good liberal blog. The daily dish maybe comes close, and maybe Richard Posner!! Where ARE these things you are talking about!!??

Here's a "plan." Put them in large buildings with thick concrete walls, locked rooms, razor wire, and armed guards. Put procedures in place to regulate who gets in and assure that no one gets out who isn't supposed to. Maybe we could call these structures "prisons" and use them for all sorts of dangerous miscreants, like, say, murderers and rapists.

And with a town in Montana begging to get 100 Gitmo prisoners, I wonder how long this farce will go on.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/18/hardin-montana-guantanamo/

The goopers haven't done anything for our country in several decades.

Can't GOP lawmakers pretend to be grown-ups on this?

And can't Democratic lawmakers pretend to have some balls on this?

Hey, Craig, we're trying to have an adult conversation here. For snippy junior high gossip, try over by the lockers on the second floor, where the vice principal can't see you loitering and snickering.

perhaps the congressional democrats are just trying to make their republican colleagues feel less like losers?

i can't think of any other reason why the freaking majority party continues to cave to the minority.

Jeez, with all the guns and armed Minutemen loitering about this country, I thought we were completely secure.

How the GOP manages to make the US look like a country of cowards, afraid of terrorist suspects who are locked in max security facilities, is only confirmed by the way the Dems run for cover on the matter.

Let's showcase our state of the art penal facilities here in America. After all prisons have been one of the few growth industries here for the past 15 years. The little Montana hamlet has is right. If a facility is available, up grade it and bring the prisoners on - the local economy will benefit greatly, and the whole world will see how careful we are with difficult human beings! -Kevo

Cant Democrats get a spine???

They're in charge and they are STILL not in charge!

Can't GOP lawmakers pretend to be grown-ups on this?

Politics is not a game for grown-ups.

It looks like the minority party still knows exactly how to push the majority party's buttons.

Another possible culprit for you to consider is the majority of voters. Just because we already have some terrorists, doesn't persuade most voters that it's a good idea to import more terrorists.

Craig: Can you please point me to a "good" liberal blog?

What's wrong with Political Animal? You can always debate or challenge points that you think are false, misleading, or incomplete. And you can follow the links provided by Steve and the other debaters.

Besides Political Animal, let me recommend Talking Points Memo. Josh Marshall will respond (at least he used to) to interesting and well-phrased emails.

What I find most telling about MsJoanne's link to the Hardin Montana story isn't even the story itself. It's the fact that a foreign media (Al Jazeera) journalist is the one with the story. Our corporate owned bought and paid for media here in the U.S. can't even come up with this homegrown story? PATHETIC!

Just because we already have some terrorists, doesn't persuade most voters that it's a good idea to import more terrorists.

What makes it a bad idea? Specifically, what makes it a bad idea to put someone convicted of a federal crime--or awaiting trial on a federal crime--in a federal prison?

It's very important that W.M. proclaim the Democrats the winners every time they cave in to the Republicans, otherwise people might get the false impression that Obama and the Democrats are spineless wimps.

Actually they are pragmatists who are simply adopting Republican positions as a way of throwing the opposition off track. Then, when the Republicans least expect it, the Democrats will unite and force down the throats of the Republicans the one piece of legislation they truly care about: another bank bailout.

See, the Democrats are crafty.

They don't understand how this:

The bad news for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is that a new Mason-Dixon poll...shows the senator with weak support...

...and this:

It looks like the minority party still knows exactly how to push the majority party's buttons.

...are related.

Time to focus on the 'better' portion of 'more and better.'

Can't GOP lawmakers pretend to be grown-ups on this?

Can't Democratic lawmakers get some %$%^'ing spines.

So, this isn't a total collapse in the face of Republican complaints, just a temporary collapse

As long as Reid is majority leader, that's small comfort.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is still pushing a measure to block any and all Gitmo detainees from stepping foot on U.S. soil, for a trial or for their detention. His GOP colleagues are enthusiastic about the measure.

While US government tries to persuade its European allies to take some of the Guantanamo detainees, the US Senate passes a measure declaring that none of these detainees will be allowed to set foot on US soil.

Brilliant move Senator, because everybody knows how persuasive the 'Not in my back yard' argument is.

Republicans still believe that the Commander in Chief had complete and exclusive authority over these matters in the theater of war.

Given that we have a new POTUS and the country is back at 9/10 and unicorms have filled the land, the theater of war doesn't extend onto the continental US, Alaska or Hawaii.

Exit strategy: change Gitmo's name to something pretty and ignore it

How about ... Chez Guevara

Another possible culprit for you to consider is the majority of voters. Just because we already have some terrorists, doesn't persuade most voters that it's a good idea to import more terrorists.

Which "majority of voters" are you talking about? Doesn't the answer to the polls on this topic depended how scare-mongering your questions are?

A good, loaded poll question: "Do you believe American prisons like San Quentin are strong enough to hold a few Afghan goat-herders who've been locked in cages for several years for no clear reason and tortured and brutalized into a permananent stupor?"

This Repub tactic of yelling that "a terrorist is coming to your neighbourhood" makes me wonder... Just how many of their constituents live *in* (not near) places like SuperMax or San Quentin or whatever? I mean... The only way those terrorists (some not even proven as such) would be Joe Schmoe's neighbours is if they shared the cell-block.

I know that they managed to gerrymander some districts to their satisfaction so that the prison population is counte in federal funds distribution but the inmates don't vote.

Makes you wonder just who got s**t for brains -- the legislators or their constituents. Though it's not just Repubs; my own "maverickety" Senator Webb -- whom I actually supported with hard cash in '06, more fool me -- is also saying "not here, not in my backyard". Pfui.

MatthewRMarler: Just because we already have some terrorists, doesn't persuade most voters that it's a good idea to import more terrorists.

Because you believe they'll be running loose on the streets? Because you think if there are enough of them in one supermax, they'll reserve the conference room to plot their next bombing?Because they eat a lot, so how can you ever plan properly for dinner if you don't know how many are coming over? Why are you this dumb?

This is total misframing of the issue. Sure, supermax or many other facilites hold the most violent prisoner. But that is not the issue, and this line of argument is a red herring.
The prisoners in SuperMax were tried and convicted in US Court systems.
To bring Gitmo prisoners to these facilites eihter requires them to be tried in US court (which both Bush and Obama believe is impossible) or lock them up with out due process.
That is reason they are not brought to US soil in the first place, and why Obama is continuing this process. Gitmo has never been accused of prisoner abuse, only that it was locking away with out habeus corpus, which moving to US soil doesn't change

Shorter MatthewRMarler: Thankfully, terrorism is one of the few topics the GOP can successfully demagogue!

Shame on you, Marler.

Gitmo has never been accused of prisoner abuse

I think you might want to do a little homework on that, pardner.

What? It's going to take "$80 million to relocate Guantanamo's 241 detainees"? Does it seriously take $332,000 to move 1 person from Point A to Point B? If the person is an astronaut and Point B is on the moon, okay, that's a bargain basement ticket. But to anywhere else? Why is there a need for a Congressional appropriation to pay for moving 241 people? Wouldn't the administration's petty cash do the job pretty well? Or are we planning to buy each detainee his own Lexus for the trip?