First off, Harry Reid is the complete polar opposite of balls. The anti-testicle. If Harry Reid and an actual pair of testicles were ever in the same room, they'd mutually annihilate each other. Fortunately he's in the Senate so the odds of this happening are low.
Now for the baseless speculation I promised you: a lot of people I know are scratching their heads over why the Democrats are obstructing Obama's plans to close Guantanamo, and Obama's sudden embrace of the military tribunals process he swore to dismantle when he was running for president. (Doesn't that seem like it was a hundred years ago?) It does seem rather pointless to oppose closing Guantanamo at this point - the tide of public opinion in favor of doing so seems inexorable. And I can't believe anyone in the Democratic party is still concerned about the GOP portraying them as weak on national security. That's just what they do. You might as well take the weather personally.
I think the key is the insistence from both sides that the Gitmo detainees never be imprisoned on American soil, not even in the supermax prisons that do a fine job of containing our good old homegrown American brain-eaters. Imprison these guys on American soil and at some point they're going to get lawyers. And then at some point those lawyers are going to go on the Rachel Maddow Show and tell us all what the hell really went down at Guantanamo. And then everyone in DC is going to be longing for the good old days of debating whether or not Nancy Pelosi should resign because it would make Dick Cheney happy.
Gitmo is a dead prison walking and everyone knows it. The only option left that will keep the ugly truth from hitting the fan is the military tribunals process, which isn't exactly hermetic but it is sealed a lot tighter than a straightforward criminal prosecution. I sort of pity Obama, having to triage all this horrible shit, but he knew the country was broken when he volunteered for the job. There's no keeping a lid on what's happened at this point, so he might as well choose the path of human decency. Then again, that's easy for me to say. On the Internet.
(Swiped anti-matter illustration from here.)
We've been saying this about Reid for years. The guy who goes to the wall to impeach the Bushes, even now, will probably hold his seat until he dies, but damn, if the Senate Dems are simply incapable of recognizing that.
If Reid had come out 110% for Obama, AFTER the election, hell, if he did it TODAY - he wouldn't have to worry about this.
Reid's done failed himself into a challenge for all of his weak-kneed bull. It didn't have to be this way.
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