There are a couple of things to think about in regards to Steny Hoyer's Gitmo cynicism. The first is that closing Gitmo, like passing health-care reform, is not something the president can do through sheer force of will. The second is that the complete lack of urgency in attempting to close Gitmo, from the administration and Democrats in Congress, cements the notion on the right that the Bush administration was unfairly smeared for lawless and counterproductive national-security policies and that hyperbolic criticisms of said policies from Democrats were nothing more than unprincipled, bare-knuckle politics. At this point, it's hard to disagree with the latter observation. The longer Democrats drag their feet, the longer the idea that Gitmo was ever a national-security liability begins to fade. Which isn't to say that it has ceased to be a national-security liability, because it hasn't.
