I've been frustrated with many of the Obama administration's national security policies. Still, Spencer Ackerman points out that, for all the high-profile hubbub about Rahm Emanuel potentially cutting a deal with Lindsey Graham over closing Guantanamo by scuttling the 9/11 trials, Emanuel's influence on these matters does not appear to be great:
According to a person familiar with the conversations, who discussed the confidential deliberation on the condition of anonymity, Emanuel made his case to Obama, articulating the political dangers of a civilian trial to congressional Democrats. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. presented a counterargument rooted in principle, for civilian trials.
David Axelrod, senior adviser to Obama, supported Holder, the source said. The president agreed that letting the Justice Department take the lead was the right thing to do.
This lack of principle is given what ultimately amounts to faint praise in the Post this morning, as Emanuel is portrayed as "a force of political reason." As opposed to principle, I guess.
I continue to be mystified as to why Democrats are so afraid to engage the GOP on this issue. The president has the backing of the two most popular military officials of the last 25 years on his side -- Colin Powell and David Petraeus have both described Guantanamo Bay as a national security liability. Civilian courts are more effective than military commissions at trying terrorists. Oh, and the last administration presided over the largest terror attack ever on American soil and then invaded a country that had nothing to do with it.
Despite the president's "failure" to listen to Emanuel, Americans give Obama high ratings for his handling of terrorism, even with the relative unpopularity of his individual decisions. For all Emanuel's hand-wringing, Republicans in the House failed to scare skittish Democrats into adopting a Graham-like measure last week, after they were given cover by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, making the measure's passage in the Senate less likely.
Emanuel's "reason" seems to be confined to a single move in his repertoire: the tactical move to the right, no matter what the circumstances.
-- A. Serwer
