Reid gives himself leeway on Gitmo

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday that he is willing to work with President Obama to reach a “responsible solution” for closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Reid also said a vast majority of Senate Democrats supported closing the prison camp even though the Senate voted overwhelmingly this week to block funding to shut it down.

{mosads}Earlier in the week he pledged that Senate Democrats “will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States” and, when pressed, indicated that meant not allowing them to be transferred to prisons inside the U.S.

But on Thursday, after Obama spoke, Reid appeared to give himself a little leeway to perhaps modify that firm stance.

“President Obama agrees with [former] President Bush and agrees with [Sen.] John McCain [R-Ariz.] that [Guantanamo] needs to be closed and announced today that it would be closed,” said Reid on Thursday. “We are wanting and willing to work with him to come up with a responsible solution.”

Reid noted, however, that “many Americans have concerns about terrorists coming into our community.”

But Reid declined to answer a question about whether he is still opposed to bringing detainees onto U.S. soil.

Reid also asserted that Obama’s speech Thursday does not change the Senate’s game plan.

“We have always known that he agrees with Bush and McCain about closing Guantanamo,” he said. “The vast majority of the Senate, Democrats certainly, agree that it should be closed and it’s going to be closed.

“I think [what] the president did today is give us a broad vision about what he expects,” said Reid. “He is going to give us a detailed plan.”

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) later explained to reporters that so many Democrats voted against funding for closing Guantanamo because they had yet not seen a plan for where to send the suspected terrorists in custody in Cuba.

Durbin said fellow Democrats found it too difficult to defend an unknown alternative to Guantanamo.

When asked about former Vice President Cheney’s decision to deliver a speech on the heels of Obama’s address, Reid took a poke at his Republican adversary.

“The [former] vice president has a lot of qualities, and one he’s had in the past is [that] he hasn’t worried about stepping on people’s feet, and other things.”

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that Cheney could do whatever he wanted but that it wouldn’t help the GOP’s low standing in the polls.

“I think the Republican Party has to find a new way. The way has changed; it’s not the Ronald Reagan world of 1980. Vice President Cheney is still in that world, and I don’t think he’s going to help them out of their problems.”