Friday, May 1, 2009

Dems Struggle With Gitmo Politics

Camp Delta, the fenced-in core of the Guantánamo prison. Angel Franco/The New York Times

From Politico:

Republicans are pushing the hot-button issue of what will be done about Guantanamo’s prisoners—so much so that Democrats signaled Thursday that they will likely drop language sought by the Pentagon to authorize the use of war funds to relocate the inmates.

The political stakes were underlined when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made a rare return to his old haunts on the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday to quiz Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the issue. Guantanamo surfaced as well in a closed-door meeting Thursday of the House Appropriations defense panel, which now expects to recommend next week that the relocation language be stricken from a pending $83.4 billion war funding request for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read more .....

My Comment: This should not be a surprise. The majority of Americans want terrorists in jail and not out there planning jihad against America. Playing politics with Guantanamo may appeal to their base, but releasing jihadists will have a political price to pay that may not be appealing to a number of Democratic politicians running for office.

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