The GOP Presents: The "Keep Terrorists Out Of America Act" (Not a Joke)

[HopeOverFear]

A House GOP staffer sends over a summary of the “Keep Terrorists Out Of America Act,” which the GOP leadership plans to unveil later today at a press conference, in keeping with the stepped-up national security attacks on Obama I noted here yesterday.

The bill attempts to place restrictions on transfers of Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States, and has two primary features:

* It prohibits the Obama administration from transferring any Guandetainee to any state without approval from that state’s legislature and governor

* Before transferring any detainee to any state, it requires the administration to notify Congress of the name of the detainee, and to stipulate to Congress that the release would not hamper continued prosecution of the detainee and wouldn’t negatively impact the state’s population.

The political game plan, obviously, is to tie Obama’s closure of Guantanamo to the idea that its detainees could come to a community near you, in order to sow fears more broadly about Obama’s foreign and anti-terror policies. It’s also designed to pressure Congressional Dems, particularly in red states, to distance themselves from Obama’s policies or risk being painted weak on terror.

What’s interesting is that the GOP leadership keeps forging ahead with this strategy despite private worries among some Congressional GOP staffers and strategists that it makes the party look like its reverting to old fearmongering tactics. In an interview with me the other day, GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio responded to the new GOP strategy by asking: “What are we, in a time machine?”

The full summary of the “Keep Terrorists Out Of America Act,” to be introduced by GOP Reps Pete King and Pete Hoekstra, is right here.

[baldguy]

1. Does this mean we can deport Phred Phelps, Michael Weiner, Anne Colter & Michelle Bachman?

[villager]

2. that's what I was thinking -- what about the GOP terrorists already here?

n/t

[Occam Bandage]

3. Dudes. Y'all ran the 9/11 train off the rails.

Then you put it on wheels and tried to run it alongside the rails, until it tipped over and rolled down a hill and off a cliff. Then you tried dragging the shattered and twisted steel behind a team of draft horses, until the horses all dropped dead from exhaustion. Then you tried launching the remains of that train from an enormous catapult constructed from bone and lashed together with ligament, and yet you missed your shot and sent the train hurtling directly into the cliff face. Then you tried to launch it using dynamite, only all you accomplished was to explode that train and scatter the debris miles around.

The train is gone. Done. No more train. Get a new one.

[billyoc]

4. You don't need a time machine to travel to the past, Tony.

You never left.

[Skinner]

5. They are so lame.

I guess the idea here is that if Democrats oppose it, they can say that we are against keeping terrorists out of America.

What next? "The Whoever Votes Against This Bill Hates America Act"?

[Aloha Spirit]

7. The Keep Our Children Safe Act

Bans cigarettes, booze, guns and the internet within 50 yards of any child :-)

[HopeOverFear]

9. They're going for what they know best, fear, wedge issues

No new ideas whatsoever.

[EC]

6. They can write all the bills they want

doesn't mean they'll make it to the floor for debate or vote....file it in the wastebasket where it belongs.

[Blue Meany]

8. Remember when the Repubs used to change the name of

Democratic Legislation to things like "The Pedohpile Protection Act?" They should change it to the "Dictatorial Powers for Governors Act" or "Aid for Homeless Terrorists Act."

[Politicalboi]

10. They haven't even proved

That these guys are terrorist. The only terrorist we have are Repukes.