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• Monday, May 25, 2009 08:45 AM

  Some members of Congress are stumped - or just won't help

  “And so going forward, my administration will work with Congress to develop an appropriate legal regime, that our efforts are consistent with all values and our Constitution.”

  The problem is, the congressional Democrats he’d consult on the issue don’t seem to have any suggestions for Obama on how to detain potentially dangerous people without violating the Constitution.

  “I don’t know,” said House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, who would be likely to be involved in any discussions between Obama and Congress. He did note, however, that “there are places in the United States that would be happy” to take the detainees, because “there are prison systems that need them or they’ll be facing massive unemployment.”

  Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts gave Obama “credit for taking the issue on in a straightforward way,” but said only that “I’d be interested to see what he’s proposing” on a constitutional system of preventive detention. “Maybe he’s a smarter man than I,” McGovern said, but “I can’t think of a system that fits within the Constitution.”...

  And by the way, don’t expect Obama to get any help from Republicans, who generally don’t see a problem with preventive detention but aren’t about to help Obama write a plan for shutting down Guantánamo. “I don’t think Congress is going to provide any funding for shutting down Guantanamo until we see a plan,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told reporters after Obama’s speech. “And they might not want to then, depending upon the adequacy of the plan.”

  http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/balance_of_power/2009/05/on-detainees-consulting-congre.html

  —EJ Read EJ's other letters
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