Maine’s Congressional Delegation is split on President Barack Obama’s new proposal to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center in Cuba.
The president himself says that the politics around the Guantanamo military prison are “tough.” But nonetheless he is calling for serious bipartisan efforts to move forward on a plan to transfer most of the prisoners to U.S.-based facilities.
Maine independent Sen. Angus King, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, says he’ll take a careful look at the plan. He says it costs the U.S. almost $2 million a year to house prisoners at Guantanamo, compared with less than $100,000 to house inmates at federal prisons.
“The cost is high and the cost to the country reputationally, in terms of recruiting for our adversaries, is high as well,” King says. “We’ll see how that discussion goes. I think the burden is on the president to come up with a credible plan and I think over the next few weeks we’ll see whether he’s done so.”
King says the proposal will get a fair hearing in Congress, and he notes that some Republicans, such as Arizona Sen. John MacCain, have shown interest in efforts to close the prison. But McCain says the president’s new plan is “not credible.” And other Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Maine’s 2nd District, are using stronger terms.
In a statement, Poliquin calls it “dangerous,” “senseless” and “illegal.” And the National Republican Congressional Committee was quick to send out a release condemning Emily Cain, Poliquin’s potential Democratic challenger, for “standing silent” while the president harms national security.
Poliquin’s House colleague, Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, says she expects Republican attacks on her will be coming soon enough. And she says it’s a potent political issue because many Americans are understandably frightened, at least at first, by the idea of bringing terrorists or potential terrorists to U.S. soil.
“But if you remind people that they are going into maximum security prisons and we expect those prisons to already contain terrorists and murderers and never have an escapee, then it sounds a little more understandable,” she says.
Pingree also says Republicans are likely to continue to withhold funds the White House might need to plan and deploy a prisoner relocation effort. But she’d support the president if he tried to move forward without congressional approval, through executive action.
“If he found a way to go ahead and do this I think he’d find strong support in the Democratic Party, and I think he’d find strong support in the public when they hear both sides of this argument,” she says.
Meanwhile, King’s seatmate on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, had offered no public comment on the issue as of late Tuesday afternoon.