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Via Dan Froomkin, who writes about the Senate’s 90-6 vote not to fund any transfer of Gitmo detainees to US prisons, we get confirmation that Senator Harry Reid, the leader of Senate Democrats, is incoherent, spineless and an embarrassment to us all. Why oh why can’t we have better leaders?
Here’s the transcript of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s nonsensical news conference yesterday.
Reid: "I think there’s a general feeling… that the American people, and certainly the Senate, overwhelmingly doesn’t want terrorists to be released in the United States. And I think we’re going to stick with that…."
Q. "No one’s talking about releasing them. We’re talking about putting them in prison somewhere in the United States."
Reid: "Can’t put them in prison unless you release them."
Q. "Sir, are you going to clarify that a little bit? I mean — "
Reid: "I can’t — I can’t — I can’t make it any more clear than the statement I have given to you. We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States. I think the majority — I speak for the majority of the Senate….
Q. "[I]f a detainee is adjudicated not to be a terrorist, could that detainee then enter the United States?"
Reid: "Why don’t we wait for a plan from the president? All we’re doing now is nitpicking on language that I have given you. I’ve been as clear as I can. I think I’ve been pretty clear…."
Q. "But Senator, Senator, it’s not that you’re not being clear when you say you don’t want them released. But could you say — would you be all right with them being transferred to an American prison?"
Reid: "Not in the United States."
Q. (OFF-MIKE)
Reid: "I think I’ve had about enough of this."
Hilzoy asks the next logical question.
Glenzilla lays out the whole sorry spectacle.
10 Comments
Fix “Froomin” while the edit function still lets you.
It’s bad enough that Harry Reid is in the Senate and calls himself a Democrat. But I will never comprehend how the rest of the Democratic Senators elected him to be Majority Leader. He couldn’t lead his way out of a wet paper bag with an exit sign…
“>Obama himself addressed this today in his speech — it’s the first (and so far only) thing they’ve really focused on from it:
President Barack Obama forcefully defended his decision to close the Guantanamo detention camp Thursday and said some of the terror suspects held there would be brought to top-security prisons in the United States despite fierce opposition in Congress.
He insisted the transfer would not endanger Americans and promised to work with lawmakers to develop a system for holding detainees who can’t be tried and can’t be turned loose from the Navy-run prison in Cuba. He spoke one day after the Senate voted resoundingly to deny him money to close the prison.
“There are no neat or easy answers here,” Obama said in a speech in which he pledged anew to clean up what he said was “quite simply a mess” at Guantanamo that he had inherited from the Bush administration.
Moments after Obama concluded, former Vice President Dick Cheney delivered his own address across town defending the decisions of the Bush administration in dealing with terrorism. Expressing no remorse for the actions the Bush White House had ordered, Cheney said under the same circumstances he would make the same decisions “without hesitation.”
Obama noted that roughly 500 detainees already had been released by the Bush administration. There are 240 at Guantanamo now. The president said that 50 of those had been cleared to be sent to other countries — although he did not identify which countries might be willing to take them.
Obama conceded that some Guantanamo detainees would end up in U.S. prisons and said those facilities were tough enough to house even the most dangerous inmates.
Obama decried arguments used against his plans.
“We will be ill-served by the fear-mongering that emerges whenever we discuss this issue,” he declared.
I’ve always been disgusted with and ashamed of Reid. He has always been pathetic and I more and more find most of the democratic congresssional and senatorial folks to be the same. Why can’t we have better? I don’t know, beyond the uneducated and complacent citizenry. Where’s the hope, Scarecrow?
Welcome back.
blessings to all
“Can’t put them in prison unless you release them.”
No one should ever forget that he said something this stupid in trying to get someone to shut up and stop questioning him.
And Reid himself should not be allowed to forget it.
How about a little (pretend if necessary) bravado, Harry. Come on, try it, it feels good. *sigh* He thinks we’re all afraid like him, I guess. I really find other people’s fears so annoying.
It must be awfully wet and stinky on the floor of the Senate right now. It’s embarrassing to have leaders this spineless and inept.
It is interesting that Froomkin started out very solidly Obama and change we can believe in but recently he has become more critical of Obama and the whole Democratic enterprise. Glad to see him coming out against Harry Reid. As a Republican Majority leader, he’s doing fine. As the Democratic Majority leader, he is worse than useless.
In this case, he is gratuitously repeating a Republican talking point without caring that it in no way corresponds to reality. Spineless embarrassment, waste of oxygen, that is Harry Reid.
Oh, and as I like to point out if Harry Reid had been interested in resolving any Bush era issues he could have done so anytime in the last 8 years. If he had, we might not be facing many of the issues we do now. But then Reid could not be bothered to get off his bony ass.
Reid and the other democratic senator’s have really angered me. They don’t represent anyone but their own interests. They are all cowards. In large part they let Bush get away with having his way with this country. Too many of our represenatives just sat by way to quietly for 8 years. And now this! I am sickened and disgusted!!! And, what was that called that Feinstein did??
I couldn’t agree more! I have never been so let down in my life. “A deal is a deal”-try telling that to all those dudes on “Stop Loss”, they should have been out a long time ago. ” A deal is a deal”, which is apparently not the case of Social Security, which we have faithfully contributed to for our entire working lifetimes. They took that money, used it for their tax cuts and now they are going to cut our benefits because they don’t want to honor “The full faith and credit of the United States”. It would appear that “A deal is a deal” only when it works to the Government’s advantage.
These assholes have taken us to the cleaners on every single issue which has worked to the benefit of the general populace. The House of Lords is apparently accountable to no one, for the members change Parties to protect their personal interests, abandoning their constituents rather than face a stern primary challenge.
This body has become a joke throughout the entire Western World, as it no longer represents anything close to a democratic institution. Its arcane rules have allowed it to throttle the people’s interests in almost every instance. Much venerated senior “Statesman” such as the barely cognizant Byrd constantly vote against the Party, but are adored anyway-I say they are not only relics, but embarrassments! Democrats-the Washington Generals of politics.