Today in Washington D. C. - May 18, 2009 - Sen. Jim Webb Stands Up!

Having recessed last Thrusday, the Senate will reconvene at 2 pm No votes a scheduled for Monday. It is amazing how the Senate Democrat Leadership rushes through spending, bailouts and budget bills without even enough time for Senators to read them and then they drag along the rest of the time. Not that we even want them to meet and cause more problems for Americans, but this evidences that they had available time to study issues and political appointments before unleashing them on the American citizens.

On Tuesday, the Senate will resume consideration of a bill to place restrictions on credit card companies, H.R. 627. Senators will then vote on cloture on the Dodd-Shelby substitute amendment to the bill. A vote on final passage of the bill is expected before noon.

Over the weekend, a key Democrat senator finally stood up and broke with President Obama on his decision to close Guantanamo by next year and to bring terror detainees to the United States. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Sen. Jim Webb, (D-VA), a Marine veteran and former Secretary of the Navy, said on ABC’s This Week that he now "disagrees with President Barack Obama’s timetable to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in January 2010.” Asked by George Stephanopoulos if he could accept the release into Virginia of the 17 Uighurs trained in terrorist camps, Webb flatly said, “No.” Webb went on to say that he did not think other Guantanamo detinees should be tried in the US. “We spent hundreds of millions of dollars building an appropriate facility with all security precautions at Guantanamo to try these cases,” he said. “I do not believe they should be tried in the United States.”

Interviewed by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell agreed, saying, “I think we ought to leave Guantanamo open. It's a $200 million state-of-the-art facility. No one has ever escaped from there. It has courtrooms for the military commissions trials which the president has now correctly, in my view, decided, you know, maybe that's a good way to try some of these terrorists after all. My view is it's the perfect place for them.”

Stephanopoulos pointed out to Webb that in January, he’d supported the Obama administration plan to close Guantanamo within a year but Webb replied that he no longer thinks such a timeline is reasonable. The president might want to consider Sen. Webb’s line of thinking and reevaluate the hasty decision to declare that the facility will be closed by January 22, 2010. As Sen. McConnell said, “The president made a mistake by picking a date certain to close Guantanamo. He's changed his mind about a number of things. This is one, I think, that requires an adjustment in his position because I think he's going to have a very difficult time figuring out what to do with these terrorists.”

Stephanopoulos wrote yesterday, “If Sen. Webb’s any indication, the president is running into more trouble with his own party on his plans to close down Guantanamo.” Americans will have an opportunity to find out later this week when the Senate takes up the supplemental war funding bill. There will almost certainly be a vote on some aspect of the administration’s plan to close the facility and bring terror detainees to the US. Sen. McConnell reminded Chris Wallace on Sunday, “Two years ago, I offered an amendment on the floor of the Senate giving the Senate an opportunity to express itself on the question of whether or not terrorists should come to the United States. It was 94-3 against.”

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