Hamden a Mixed Blessing for Dems

The Hamden decision came down just as I was getting on the road today, so I've had about 250 miles to listen to the commentary and discussions. Although the mainstream media is painting it as a big defeat for Bush, I think that's temporary at best. Tonight the Dems may be dancing around their fires and offering sacrifices to their liberal gods (and Justice Kennedy), but this whole thing may turn around and bite them right on the butt. Why? Stay tuned.

Hamden did not do away with the idea of military tribunals for the terrorists who have been captured in the war on terror. What it did do was declare that military tribunals could not be used under the present law, but Congress could step in an grant the president the authority to use them if they wished. The Senate GOP is already on the case which is going to present the Dems with the delicious opportunity to either vote to grant the president the right to try this scum using military tribunals, or refuse that authority and basically create the al-Qaeda Bill of Rights which would require running all these lowlifes through the criminal justice system. Are the Dems so in opposition to Bush that they would jump on that bandwagon? Some undoubtedly are and their arguments in favor of criminal rights for terrorists will be highly entertaining.

But there's another group out there that's going to rue this decision as well. Who? The terrorists.

No, not the boys down at Club Gitmo, but the vermin that's still out in the caves and slums and who will be coming face-to-face with our Special Forces in the future. As long as the judicial situation involving terrorists is in limbo, what motivation will the Special Forces have in taking any of these animals alive? Absolutely none, if the prospect is a trial in a U.S. criminal court. Consequently, terrorists captured by our Special Forces in some dark nook or cranny of Iraq or Afghanistan can look forward to a brief and possibly painful interrogation to get what we can get out of them, and then will probably be "shot while attempting to escape", if you know what I mean.

This whole episode has the potential to be a shining gift to the GOP, despite all the talk of a Bush defeat today.