[sailaway21]

Gitmo is an area where the Dem's should be careful for what they wish for. It's one thing to conveniently let slide the fact that the Dem leadership has been briefed at every step of the way on Gitmo and the waterboarding there (never once raising an objection) and quite another when you now control both branches of government and have to decide just what "your" policy is going to be.

It ought to be dawning on a few of these rocket scientists that Gitmo is a symbol of just how open we actually are about these matters. Most any other country would have them locked away in a secret location with no access to anyone. The detainees would then eventually just "disappear".

Coupled with that openness is the fact of the specific selection of Gitmo itself. It's a very measure of how seriously we take our laws and Constitution that Gitmo, on foreign soil, was selected. In a decision where all choices are less than satisfactory, Gitmo offered at least the lack of any constitutional contortions that might needlessly distract from a the pressing issue of required long-term detention.

Just about anybody with a press card or status as a member of the government has been through Gitmo if desirous. There've yet to be any plausible claims of inappropriate conduct there in the treatment of the prisoners in general. It's not even clear as to where the waterboarding of prisoners took place. I suspect that the Obama administration will have more difficulty in closing Gitmo than is widely appreciated.