Oh Those Feckless Demoquacks

This blog has been relentless in its attacks on Republicans, who deserve every bit of the scorn heaped on them for being the Party of Obstruction at a time when all Americans have to pull together. But today I'm looking across the aisle at congressional Democrats and down Pennsylvania Avenue to the president, who are doing a pretty good imitation of losing their minds over two seemingly unrelated issues: Stripping funding for closing Guantánamo Bay and allowing people to carry concealed weapons in national parks.

Now I understand that it is better to concentrate on what you are winning, and there is a heap of that this week alone, notably a terrific credit card reform bill and long overdue new federal fuel economy emissions standards.

But it speaks volumes about how ineffectual the Democrats can be that they rolled over on the concealed weapons provision, which was a rider to the credit card legislation. Obama is expected to sign the bill, and I guarantee you it will only be a matter of time before some gun nut goes wacko at Yellowstone.

The Gitmo funding flap is even more outrageous because it reveals those Democrats to be cowards.

The administration had asked Congress to $80 million to fulfill the president's pledge to close the detention facility for terrorism suspects, but majority leaders Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi caved in to pressure from Republicans -- yes, the crowd whose power is so diminished that they could fit into a men's room stall at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport -- and unwarranted fears that those suspects will be transferred to county prison farms where they can easily escape to buy firearms at the nearest Wal-Mart. (Then there's those scary Uighurs.)

Reid and Pelosi know full well that this is horse hockey and those suspects will be incarcerated at maximum-security federal facilities like those that house terrorists such as Eric Rudolph, John Lee Gacy, the Unabomber, and Ramzi Yousef and three other 1993 World Trade Center bombers that are escape proof.