Senate Republicans settled Monday on their first line of attack in the battle over closing the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay: No detainees can come to American soil.
With the blessing of his party leaders Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) is expected to offer the language as an amendment to a $91.3 billion wartime spending bill that could come before the Senate as early as Tuesday.
The measure now includes $80 million requested by President Barack Obama to begin to carry out his January executive order that Guantanamo be closed by early next year. The House last week stripped out all of the money but Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) has charted a middle course keeping the money intact but allowing none of it to be released until the White House comes forward with a detailed plan to address security concerns among lawmakers.
Given the emotions of the moment the chairmans hopes appear doomed before the debate even begins.
In a week when Obama is poised to win both credit card reform and anti-foreclosure legislation from Congress frustrated Republicans see a precious opportunity to bloody the president on whats been a signature issue for him.
Democrats under pressure from voters at home are already wavering as seen in the House and in statements by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) over the weekend. And Obama who is slated to address the Guantanamo issue in a speech Thursday has sent mixed signals himself as he sorts through the complexities of how to bring to trial the remaining prisoners.
Obama hasnt done us any favors on this" said one Democratic leadership aide. Hes a little of this a little of that. The Republicans have one compelling message."
The administrations allies concede as much but argue that the attacks are in essence a partisan fear mongering" campaign given that closing Guantanamo was endorsed by Obamas presidential rival Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona in last years election.
I would hope we would allow this process to go forward" Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) told reporters Monday and Ken Gude of the Center for American Progress said it was offensive" to suggest that military and corrections personnel in the United States would not be able to protect citizens from detainees brought into the country.
One side effect of the Guantanamo debate is that it makes it that much harder to complete the underlying bill before the Memorial Day recess which begins this weekend. And that will leave a second Obama priority out in the open that much longer: new financing for the International Monetary Fund.
In a phone call to Inouye and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) last Friday the president had expressed his hope that the whole package including IMF could be wrapped up before the recess. But even the White House conceded Monday that this would be tough to do. And that means the IMF package which drew the ire of the Wall Street Journal editorial page Monday could be more prone to conservative attacks.
Obama has a personal stake in the IMF initiative since he and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner took the lead at an April G-20 meeting in urging that industrial nations help to raise $500 billion in new borrowing authority for the IMF as insurance against a future crisis among developing nations affected by the global economic downturn.
The U.S. share would be $100 billion though the true cost is far less since it is essentially a line of credit that the IMF could tap in the future. And Treasury had hoped to make good on the April pledge before IMF and G-8 meetings next fall in order to bring along other nations.
It was our idea and we want to deliver on our idea" a Treasury official said. We are in the midst of a global financial crisis and we want to know that the IMF has the resources to respond."
By David Rogers
Senate Republicans settled Monday on their first line of attack in the battle over closing the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay: No detainees can come to American soil.
With the blessing of his party leaders Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) is expected to offer the language as an amendment to a $91.3 billion wartime spending bill that could come before the Senate as early as Tuesday.
The measure now includes $80 million requested by President Barack Obama to begin to carry out his January executive order that Guantanamo be closed by early next year. The House last week stripped out all of the money but Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) has charted a middle course keeping the money intact but allowing none of it to be released until the White House comes forward with a detailed plan to address security concerns among lawmakers.
Given the emotions of the moment the chairmans hopes appear doomed before the debate even begins.
In a week when Obama is poised to win both credit card reform and anti-foreclosure legislation from Congress frustrated Republicans see a precious opportunity to bloody the president on whats been a signature issue for him.
Democrats under pressure from voters at home are already wavering as seen in the House and in statements by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) over the weekend. And Obama who is slated to address the Guantanamo issue in a speech Thursday has sent mixed signals himself as he sorts through the complexities of how to bring to trial the remaining prisoners.
Obama hasnt done us any favors on this" said one Democratic leadership aide. Hes a little of this a little of that. The Republicans have one compelling message."
The administrations allies concede as much but argue that the attacks are in essence a partisan fear mongering" campaign given that closing Guantanamo was endorsed by Obamas presidential rival Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona in last years election.
I would hope we would allow this process to go forward" Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) told reporters Monday and Ken Gude of the Center for American Progress said it was offensive" to suggest that military and corrections personnel in the United States would not be able to protect citizens from detainees brought into the country.
One side effect of the Guantanamo debate is that it makes it that much harder to complete the underlying bill before the Memorial Day recess which begins this weekend. And that will leave a second Obama priority out in the open that much longer: new financing for the International Monetary Fund.
In a phone call to Inouye and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) last Friday the president had expressed his hope that the whole package including IMF could be wrapped up before the recess. But even the White House conceded Monday that this would be tough to do. And that means the IMF package which drew the ire of the Wall Street Journal editorial page Monday could be more prone to conservative attacks.
Obama has a personal stake in the IMF initiative since he and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner took the lead at an April G-20 meeting in urging that industrial nations help to raise $500 billion in new borrowing authority for the IMF as insurance against a future crisis among developing nations affected by the global economic downturn.
The U.S. share would be $100 billion though the true cost is far less since it is essentially a line of credit that the IMF could tap in the future. And Treasury had hoped to make good on the April pledge before IMF and G-8 meetings next fall in order to bring along other nations.
It was our idea and we want to deliver on our idea" a Treasury official said. We are in the midst of a global financial crisis and we want to know that the IMF has the resources to respond."
By David Rogers
