Commentary: On Gitmo, 2 show courage, 90 don't

Thursday's competing addresses on national security from President Obama and Vice President Dick Cheney put into sharp focus the contrast between those who think the military prison at Guantanamo Bay makes us safe and those convinced it makes us less so....

...That isn't likely to change as a result of the speeches. Both presentations were first-rate, comprehensive and -- to a point -- persuasive. More importantly, they showed courage -- something missing in Congress, where lawmakers are only making a tough situation even tougher by playing politics with national security because of shortsighted provincialism...

...Frankly, both men showed more leadership than lawmakers in Congress, including many Democrats who broke with President Obama over closing Guantanamo because they fear the possibility of terror suspects being tried and incarcerated in their states. The administration has said that more than 100 prisoners would need to be moved to the United States, including many who are described as too dangerous to let go but who cannot be prosecuted for one reason or another.

Just this week, the Senate voted 90 to 6 in favor of a measure that would prevent the Guantanamo detainees from being transferred to the United States.

Senate Democratic leaders said they would not provide the $80 million that the administration requested to close the detention center at Guantanamo without seeing more specifics about what is going to happen to prisoners.

Senate Democrats are acting shamefully in pandering to NIMBY (not in my backyard) provincialism rather than trying to convince their constituents that 240 terror suspects, who can be held in maximum-security federal prisons, don't really constitute a threat to national security.

So asking the President to actually provide a plan, a course of action before handing over $80 million is a "lack of leadership" and "provincialism"? Sadly, this is the mindset of a lot of Americans today...if it sounds good, do it, who cares if we actually have a feasible plan in place!