Newt Gingrich Vs. Dick Durbin on Meet The Press (VIDEOS)

Today on Meet the Press, Gingrich and Durbin debated about the Gitmo conundrum and what to do about the terrorist detainees. Here’s a portion of the transcript:

FMR. REP. NEWT GINGRCH, (R-GA): Well, let, let me start with, first of all, it was Secretary of State Colin Powell who also talked about weapons of mass destruction, so this is not a Cheney problem. The fact is every member of the American government senior leadership believed in the intelligence they were getting at the time. And the question comes right down to, as Vice President Cheney said this week, what’s your highest priority? Is it to defend America and protect American lives, or is it to find some way to defend terrorists and to get terrorists involved in the criminal justice system? I can’t imagine–given the fact, for example, that we just picked up four terrorists in New York who had been converted in prison, I can’t imagine–the director of the FBI has said don’t put these terrorists in prisons because there’ll be an active threat to convert other people. The fact is these, these terrorists–we’re now down to the worst of the worst. These are the–the Bush administration released over 500 people. One out of every seven actually went back to war against us and is out actively trying to kill Americans today. So I would be very cautious. I think the president made a very big mistake. It was a campaign promise, it is not a national security plan. I think, frankly, they should keep Guantanamo open. Whatever the, whatever things that are wrong at Guantanamo they would fix by moving them to somewhere else, fix them at Guantanamo.

MR. GREGORY: How long should Gitmo remain open?

REP. GINGRICH: Until the war is over.

MR. GREGORY: When is that?

REP. GINGRICH: We’ll–when the terrorists disappear. I mean, you’re faced with…

MR. GREGORY: Well, you’re talking about a pretty long-term proposition here.

REP. GINGRICH: Yes, because this is a long-term proposition. You have people out there today who want to kill Americans, who would like to set off a nuclear weapon in an American city, who would like to set off a truck bomb down the street from where we are right now. These folks are serious. They’re, they’re still there. They’re fighting in Pakistan right now, they’re fighting in Iraq right now. We just arrested four people in New York City last week. What do you do with somebody who’s a dedicated, religiously-motivated terrorist? You had better keep them locked up.

MR. GREGORY: But, Senator, what about this issue of conversion in prison? What about the FBI director saying that there are concerns if you bring some of these figures into U.S. prisons?

SEN. DURBIN: Just remember that President Bush called for the closing of Guantanamo; President Obama did the same, as did Senator McCain in the last campaign. And I also want to remind the former speaker that Major Matthew Alexander, who has actually interrogated al-Qaeda suspects in Iraq, attributes half of the deaths of Americans in Iraq to the detention abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Continuing Guantanamo, unfortunately, makes our troops less safe. The bottom line as I see it is Guantanamo should close in an orderly way. President Obama announced that last Thursday. We understand that at the end of the day there will be some of these people, I don’t know the exact number, who will be too dangerous to be released, and President Obama said he would work with Congress and the courts to detain them in a humane, constitutional and legal way.

I would invite Sen. Durbin to participate in the LARK program and “sponsor” a few of the Gitmo detainees, letting them stay at his home. He’s all for sending them to the SuperMax Prison, but that prison is not in Illinois. I think that should be a call for Colorado citizens to make, and last I checked, the majority are none to pleased with that proposition. When it comes down to it for meat-and-bones issues, the NIMBY in liberals comes out quite loudly.

I also have another bone to pick with Dick Durbin; he says the Republicans are playing the “fear” card. What the hell does he think Obama has been playing on the country regarding our economy? It’s all been doom and gloom, and while we’re in financial straits, to constantly harp on economic fear, inferring only the federal government can save us in that respect is a sham. Hypocrisy indeed.

An extremely laughable statement by Durbin was made at the end of these segments; that Barack Obama knows the U.S. Constitution better than anybody else in this country. WTF? Is he serious? Even IF he does know the Constitution better than anybody else, then he certainly understands what it takes to tear apart that exact Constitution he allegedly knows so much about. And he’s doing it quite deftly. This destruction of the Constitution is the single-most motivating factor for Conservatives to stand together and get their mojo back.