White House Press Secy. Robert Gibbs didn't mince any words Tuesday when he unabashedly called some of the Great Right Wing Freak-Out over Guantanamo Bay detainees coming to a prison in Thomson, Ill. "crazy." He specifically called out GOP House Minority Leader John Boehner when he said, "I have seen some far crazier comments today -- comments from people like John Boehner. Here's what I would suggest for John Boehner. Call up Leon Panetta or Denny Blair at the CIA or the director of national intelligence. Ask them if he can come down and watch a video put out by al Qaeda senior leadership like -- the names that we recognize, (Ayman al-) Zawahiri. Thirty-two times since 2001 and four times this year alone, senior al Qaeda leadership in recruiting videos have used the prison at Guantanamo Bay as a clarion call to bring extremists from around the world to join their effort." But can you fight "The Crazy" with logic?
In a surprising, refreshing turn of events on Tuesday, White House Press Secy. Robert Gibbs called out some of the Republican tactics and scare-mongering over Gitmo detainees moving to Illinois "crazy."
It was about time.
From ABC News' Political Punch blog:
"I have seen some far crazier comments today -- comments from people like John Boehner. Here's what I would suggest for John Boehner. Call up Leon Panetta or Denny Blair at the CIA or the director of national intelligence. Ask them if he can come down and watch a video put out by al Qaeda senior leadership like -- the names that we recognize, (Ayman al-) Zawahiri. Thirty-two times since 2001 and four times this year alone, senior al Qaeda leadership in recruiting videos have used the prison at Guantanamo Bay as a clarion call to bring extremists from around the world to join their effort."
The White House is finally calling this as everyone is already seeing it -- a bunch of insanity that no one is listening to anymore. This game has gotten so old and stale -- the mock outrage followed by the politicizing followed by the more mock outrage -- that finally even the White House is calling it as they see it.
And they see everything in the right wing coming up "crazies."
Everyone has a touch of it. Well ... everyone on the wrong side of the Gitmo debate. They've got a touch of The Crazy. Yeah. They've got a bad, bad case of the head-exploding, pearl-clutching, hyperbole-spitting, hyperventilating crazies. And no two people exemplify the whole "Crazy Pants" reaction to detainees coming to a prison in Thomson, Ill. than Rep. John Boehner (a leader in the House, mind you).
From ABC News' Political Punch blog:
Earlier today in a press release titled "How Will Importing Dangerous Terrorists Make America Safer?" Boehner said "Republicans will stand with Illinois families and seek every remedy at our disposal to stop this severely misguided plan."
"Once again, the Obama Administration has put the interests of liberal special interest groups before the safety and security of the American people," Boehner said. "This decision is completely unnecessary considering that these terrorists were already being tried by military commissions, which were specifically designed under the law to prosecute such heinous acts."
Here we have Rep. Boehner, who's chosen the whole the President "has put the interests of liberal special interest groups before the safety and security of the American people" route. Classy. I don't have time to go into the numerous liberals and their differing views on the President's decision. (Here's Salon's Glenn Greenwald's take on what he's calling "Gitmo North.") But the Liberal end of things is a little more complex than Boehner is painting. And, newsflash to Boehner, military commissions do a TERRIBLE job of actually convicting people and putting them in prison. In the entirety of the Bush-Cheney Administration mil-coms only managed to prosecute and convict THREE people. This compared to federal courts that have managed to try and convict 195 terrorists since 2001.
There are others who have a bad case of the crazy (*cough* Rep. Aaron Schock! cough) but we only have a short amount of time to run through some of the lowlights.
The keen ears at Talking Points Memo picked up on Rep. Schock actually using the word "torture" in an interview about the prison in Thomson as he went all kinds of "Jack Bauer" during an interview with Hardball's Chris Matthews.
From Talking Points Memo:
Appearing on Hardball just now, Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) defended the use of waterboarding -- and unlike other GOPers, he openly used the word "torture."
"I would not limit our intelligence agencies' ability to get information from people," said Schock. "If they have a ticking time-bomb or some critical piece of information that can save American lives, I don't believe that we should limit waterboarding or quite frankly any other alternative torture technique, if it means saving Americans' lives."
Most Republicans, such as Dick and Liz Cheney, adamantly deny that waterboarding constitutes torture or that the United States ever authorized torture, and they also charge President Obama and other Democrats with slandering American troops by using the word "torture." So it's interesting to see at least one Republican who is not afraid to use the word "torture," and who describes it as a positive thing that should be utilized.
Apparently, THE CRAZY is also some kind of truth serum that makes you admit that waterboarding or "any other alternative torture technique" is peachy keen in some Jack Bauer, made-up, fictional scenario!
Which is why Press Secy. Gibbs said what he said. Someone has to point out "The Crazy" with people stop making sense.
From ABC News' Political Punch blog:
Gibbs today said the move, in closing Guantanamo Bay, will make the country safer, and suggested if Boehner – or anybody – is confused by that, they should go to the members of the previous administration such as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and ask "why they support closing Guantanamo Bay and support today's decision."
Gibbs called this sort of concern over the safety of Illinois "hyperbole" and "scare tactics" that "we haven't seen in quite some time."
It has to be stopped, I tell you. Prepare your logic inoculations. We have a lot of crazy to cure.
This post originally appeared on New Security Action. New Security Action is a new organization dedicated to fighting for a progressive, smart national security policy. We are fighting to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Follow us on twitter at twitter.com/nsaction.