All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

A group of retired generals say that former Vice President Dick Cheney and his "acolytes," including daughter Liz Cheney (left), are trying to scare Americans over the prospect of closing the Guantanamo Bay prison facility through "nonsense" arguments, Politico reports.

"It's up to all of us to say these arguments advanced by Cheney and his acolytes are nonsense and that really what they're doing is undermining our national security by delaying the date at which Guantanamo is closed," retired Brig. Gen. James Cullen told Politico.

Added retired Gen. David Maddox: "Some of the fear issues that are being raised in this are really unfortunate. It gets people excited about things they shouldn't be excited about and impedes doing what is critical to this country…We take a setback every time somebody, whether it's the vice president or his daughter comes out and says the things that they say."

In June, Liz Cheney said on CNN that "it's clear that al-Quaeda operatives and terrorists have spent a lot of time and have expended a lot of effort to get into the United States. So I think it's impossible to argue that when our government actually helps them get into the United States, as we would do in this case, that it doesn't make us less safe. Of course that makes us less safe."

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The task force created by President Obama to establish a way forward for the detainees at the U.S.'s military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba issued a preliminary report Monday night and asked the president for another six months in which to complete its work.

The Detention Policy Task Force is co-chaired by the attorney general and the secretary of defense and includes high-level representatives from the State Department, CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Joint Chiefs of Staff.

It's essentially charged with deciding whether to transfer the prisoners to countries willing to accept them or to prosecute them, although the Obama administration has complicated matters by proposing alternative pathways of prosecution (U.S. courts for some, military tribunals for others) and has kept open the option of continuing to detain those it doesn't feel it can convict.

White House officials briefed reporters on the developments Monday evening. According to CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller, officials said that of the 240 detainees at Guantanamo as of Jan. 22, "substantially more than 50” decisions have been made to transfer detainees to other countries.

Officials said that a “significant number of decisions” have been made to subject other detainees to prosecution, Knoller reported, but officials would not provide more specific numbers.

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More Americans now support closing the military prison facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba than support keeping the facilities open, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds.

Forty-eight percent of Americans want the facilities closed, while slightly fewer – 40 percent – believe they should be kept open.

In April, by contrast, more Americans supported keeping the prison open (47 percent) than supported closing it (40 percent).

Eight in ten of those who support closing Guantanamo still believe it should be closed even if that means bringing detainees to prisons in the United States.

A substantial percentage of Americans remain scared that closing Guantanamo will make America less safe, however.

Thirty-one percent say closing the prison will make the nation less safe, though that is down from 36 percent in February. Eight percent say the closure will make the United States safer, while 50 percent say it will make no difference.

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Republicans are more likely than Democrats or independents to say closing Guantanamo would endanger the country.

Four in five Americans are worried about what might happen following the release of Guantanamo detainees to another country.

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the Guantanamo Bay detainment facility a "perfect place" for keeping terrorists, crediting the military prison with having protected America from another attack following 9/11.

He characterized President Obama's efforts to close the facility as a bid to make the United States "more popular" in Europe, and criticized the president's "arbitrary deadline" for shutting it down.

"I don't think this is a problem that needs fixing," McConnell said on Face The Nation, arguing that other countries seem hesitant to house detainees, and bringing them onto American soil would open a whole other can of worms.

"If you bring them into this country and try them, then presumably they are going to be given the protections of the Bill of Rights," McConnell said.

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in Politics, written by CBS News Politics Director Steve Chaggaris:

**President Obama meets with Zimbabwe's Prime Minister today; pitched health care reform yesterday...

**Gitmo detainees unlikely to come to U.S. now...

**Iranians go to the polls...

**Palin vs. Letterman continues...

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Today, President Obama meets with Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who will "ask the U.S. to give 'transitional support' to his government with President Robert Mugabe, a man many in the West accuse of trampling rights and choking off Zimbabwe's once vibrant economy," according to the Associated Press.

"Tsvangirai himself says if it were up to him Mugabe would have retired from politics years ago. Mugabe insists Western sanctions led to his nation's economic meltdown, charges repeatedly dismissed by the United States and Britain. Tsvangirai is calling on the West to lift 'restrictive measures' against Zimbabwe, asking if the government collapsed, 'what would be the future of Zimbabwe?'"

Mr. Obama also holds private meetings at the White House with Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Brown serves on the one of the committees drafting the health care reform bill and has disagreed with the president on NAFTA; Brown wants Mr. Obama to reopen the trade agreement.

Feinstein, meantime, is chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a leading Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, which begins its confirmation hearings of Mr. Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, on July 13.

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With the first Guantanamo detainee being relocated to New York today to face trial, Republican members of Congress are expressing strong opinions against bringing the prisoners to American soil.

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) issued a statement today condemning the transfer of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a suspect in the 1998 bombings of United States embassies in Africa, to the United States.

"This is the first step in the Democrats' plan to import terrorists into America. Without a plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, the Administration has made the decision to begin transferring these terrorists into the United States, in spite of the overwhelming opposition of the American people and serious questions from Members of Congress of both parties," he stated.

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in Politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

**President Obama to talk "paygo" today...

**First Gitmo detainee to U.S...

**Democratic gubernatorial primary in Virginia today...

**Have Republicans found their voice?

**Hastert, the sequel?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yesterday, President Obama re-launched his economic stimulus plan, to lukewarm reviews. Today, he talks about how he's going to pay for a chunk of that spending: "paygo."

He will talk about his plan to stick to the "pay-as-you-go" system, or "paygo", which requires that any bills designed to cut taxes, to establish new programs or expanding programs be offset by higher taxes or benefit cuts somewhere else.

The idea has been proposed by the moderate and conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats to pay for the president's health care plan and other proposals. Members of the "Blue Dogs" will attend the president's remarks at 1 p.m. ET.

Meantime, Mr. Obama's attempt to re-focus on the positives of his stimulus plan yesterday ran into a wall of skepticism.

In an article headlined, "Obama's new stimulus plan same as the old," the Associated Press' Brett J. Blackledge and Matt Apuzzo write, "President Barack Obama is promising some exciting coming attractions for his stimulus plan. But it turns out they're just summer reruns. Obama promised Monday to ramp up spending from the $787 billion stimulus fund and create or save 600,000 jobs by the end of the summer.

"It was an effort to shift the focus away from persistently rising unemployment and beat back criticism that the money isn't flowing quickly enough. Those promises aren't new. Stimulus spending had always been expected to rise sharply this summer, and the White House has been predicting that 600,000 job total for about a month. Obama faces souring public opinion over his handling of the economy, which has shed 1.6 million jobs since the stimulus was signed in February. That total has far overshadowed White House announcements estimating the effort has saved 150,000 jobs, a figure that is so murky it can never be verified."

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Former Vice President Cheney is not the only Republican with a virulent reaction to President Obama's national security speech this morning.

Almost immediately after the president wrapped, Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R- Va.) issued a statement against transporting Guantanamo detainees to the United States.

Cantor said that "aside from a few Members of Congress" who are "choosing to go against the will of their constituents, a bipartisan majority agrees that terrorists should not be brought to America’s shores."

"Importing terrorists into our communities creates a situation where people in surrounding areas are put at greater risk," the statement continued.

At a press conference following the speech, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the president's decision to close the prison "irresponsible."

"Let me state," Boehner said, "right up front that republicans oppose releasing these terrorists or detaining them in our local communities. I think on this one he is dead wrong."

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Seeking to calm fears that al Qaeda terrorists could be set free on U.S. soil, Attorney General Eric Holder pledged today that prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay prison facility would not be released in the United States.

"We would not bring them into this country and release them," Holder said.

The Obama administration promises to close the detainment center in just eight months. Holder did not rule out some of detainees being brought to the United States for trial.

The possibility of terrorists coming to America has been met with "Not in My Backyard" objections from members of both major political parties.

Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) asked CBS News this question: "Do you know of any community in the United States of America that would welcome terrorists?"

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Senior Obama advisor David Axelrod landed some verbal blows on Dick Cheney today over the former Vice President's criticisms of the Obama administration on national security, as well as Cheney's own record in that regard. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" today, Axelrod was asked about Cheney's recent comment in a Politico interview in which he criticized the Obama administration's stance on terrorism. Axelrod didn't mince words in responding.

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