Footnote to "Profiles in Courage"

A reader at Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish had a reaction to Harry Reid similar to mine, but it took me longer to see the humor.

I have had a bit of a rough week, haven't smiled or laughed nearly as much as I usually do, but that changed when I saw video of Harry Reid maintaining that you can't put accused terrorists in prison without releasing them. I laughed so hard my cheeks hurt afterward and my patient husband had to put up with me backing up the Tivo several times just to see it again and again.

I am in awe over the scaredy-cat crap coming out of our senators' mouths (with the excellent exception of Dick Durbin). What is wrong with these people? They act like the detainees have crazy superpowers, like they are going to transform into a millimeter-high insect and crawl out under the cell door into the shoe of a correctional officer and then ESCAPE.

I have to confess I didn't have much faith in Harry Reid to begin with, but his recent statements on closing Guantanamo just finished it off. WTF?

For some real thought on that whole issue, see this post by Digby.

To say that the "evidentiary thresholds" for trying the detainees in civilian court is "too high" is another way of saying there isn't sufficient evidence on the face of it for the constant invocation that the detainees are terrorists. If it can be proven that a detainee has given material support to terrorists or contributed to an illegal act, he ought to be convicted. If it can't, then a detainee ought to be freed. What would happen in that case? Someone who isn't a terrorist would be free.

The detainees, according to the Supreme Court's Boumediene decision last year, have the right to habeas corpus, full stop. There's no putting that bit of juridical toothpaste back in the tube. As a result, they have to be provided with some sort of trial. Everything else is denying reality. The military commissions represent a method of getting convictions rather than a method of getting justice. Just saying someone is a terrorist over and over again doesn't make it the case.

See also this one. Digby's been on top of this one, so pay attention.

Maybe Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats should remember that they're siding with a group -- Republicans -- who don't believe in things like evidence and facts. Doesn't make them look good, does it?