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Durbin to Republicans: ‘You ought to have a little more respect’ for American corrections officers.

On the Senate floor last night, Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) said that American prison guards would “have no idea what they’re getting into” if Guantanamo detainees were transferred to U.S. prisons. Speaking today, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) slammed the GOP, saying his Republican colleagues should have “a little more respect” for the professionalism of American prison guards:

DURBIN: Some of my Republican colleagues argue that Guantanamo is the only appropriate place to hold the detainees and they said, and I quote, “We don’t have a facility that could handle this in the United States,” end of quote. And American prison guards, they went on to say, quote, “have no idea what they’re getting into,” close quote. Well, I would just say to my colleagues who made those statements, you ought to take a look at some of our security facilities in the United States, and you ought to have a little more respect for the men and women who are corrections officers and put their lives on the line every single day to keep us safe and to make sure that those who are dangerous are detained and incarcerated. The reality is that we’re holding some of the most dangerous terrorists in the world right now in our federal prisons, including the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the shoe bomber, the Unibomber, and many others.

Watch it:



59 Responses to “Durbin to Republicans: ‘You ought to have a little more respect’ for American corrections officers.”

  1. EugeneDebs says:

    Good job Durbin. The question is why does this point even have to be made. Is any of this NEWS to anybody?


  2. hormiga brava chavez says:

    I like Durbin – he’s usually right on point! I wonder if Scaredy cat Reid was listening?


  3. raynman says:

    I’m glad that he said, but I’m even more glad with the way he said it. It puts the GOP on the defensive trying to explain their paper thin excuses…


  4. Curlew says:

    “Reality has a known liberal bias”….Stephen Colbert


  5. MrWombat says:

    Repugs are immune to reality as well as irony.


  6. Gary Kleppe says:

    We have no proof that the people “detained” inside Guantanamo are terrorists at all. For all we know, they’re just random people that the Bushies kidnapped off the streets.


  7. ralph the wonder locust says:

    Why did it have to take this long for someone to say this? I mean, I know the Right has an extremely high threshold for shame, but they must be capable of it at some elevated level, no?


  8. RantingTommy says:

    Good job Durbin, call out the pussies for what they are.

    Why do right wingers think America is so weak?


  9. calchala says:

    He’s next in line to be Majority leader. Let’s knock out Reid, and make sure he gets the spot.


  10. Purple State says:

    This is how presentations should be made in Congress. I want a little common sense in arguments, not just the spewing of bullet points and nonsensical science.

    A little more respect for all Americans is something we should be asking of our Congressmen and women, as well.


  11. chiroptera toasterhead says:

    Gary Kleppe Says:

    We have no proof that the people “detained” inside Guantanamo are terrorists at all. For all we know, they’re just random people that the Bushies kidnapped off the streets.

    May 20th, 2009 at 11:58 am
    __________

    The Bushies? Nah, usually it was tribal warlords and foreign intelligence services who did the kidnapping for us, often making a healthy $5,000 profit on the deal.


  12. Tweedster says:

    Good on Sen. Durbin, and a BIG BIRD for the sniveling Harry Reid.

    Does anyone else get the feeling that Harry Reid is like Piglet from Winnie the Pooh? His quivering voice and everything.


  13. Tweedster says:

    RantingTommy Says:

    Good job Durbin, call out the pussies for what they are.

    Why do right wingers think America is so weak?

    Since they literally have NO agenda aside from securing power for themselves and their rich buddies the only thing they offer up is fear and divisive tactics.


  14. RantingTommy says:

    If Reid wants to join the Republican Pansy Party, then he should make it official instead of just acting like a cowardly right winger.


  15. knittingmad says:

    what about Timothy McVeigh before he was executed?!


  16. Bob says:

    He’s being generous. How about just showing some respect? Throw in a little respect for the higher intelligence of the 80% of the country not claiming to be republican.


  17. bigtime patriot says:

    From Durbins lips to Reids ears…


  18. katy says:

    thank you, sir…

    hey, how ’bout durbin for head of the senate?

    feingold would be ideal… which is why it wouldn’t fly…

    but i could go with durbin easily…

    as if WE had any say…


  19. RantingTommy says:

    4 out of 5 Americans agree: the Republicans do not represent them


  20. ralph the wonder locust says:

    I’m actually curious to see what our oxymoronic friend C4P has to say about this…


  21. christopher wiwi says:

    While the re-pukes rebrand themselves and revise their revisions of the issues some how Obama and the dems excluding the 11 or 12 blue dogs are still managing to get some things done.I would love for the repukes to name anyone that has escaped a federally max prison.


  22. AIO grasshopper says:

    Gary Kleppe Says:

    We have no proof that the people “detained” inside Guantanamo are terrorists at all.

    Perhaps not, but I’d imagine after being sodomized, water boarded, stress positioned, sleep deprived, feed pork and made to wallow in their own excrement that they might be slightly pissed and may now really want to kill ‘em an American or three.


  23. Intrepid says:

    Useful idiot trolls in 3… 2… 1…


  24. AIO grasshopper says:

    feed pork

    (correction) fed pork


  25. pastcaring says:

    Shorter Durbin:
    “Why do Republicans hate our prison guards?”


  26. winddancer says:

    Not only are our maximum security prisons holding convicted terrorists, but also some of the craziest and most dangerous plain vanilla criminals. The Republicans (and some of the Democrats without spines) really should watch “Lockup” on MSNBC. Frankly, it’s a stupid strawman argument being spewed by these people, including that coward Harry Reid.


  27. Intrepid says:

    Give ‘em Hell Durbin.


  28. pablito says:

    first: YES, durbin for senate majority leader.

    second: here’s an idea. how about bennett, inhofe, and reid try to hole up in a cell while a trained extraction team pulls them out? i think that might convince them that our prison system can easily handle anyone from guantanmo. plus the video would be AWESOME.


  29. pluege says:

    Durbin needs to take the idjit reid out back and have a little talk.


  30. pablito says:

    better yet! how about releasing bennett, inhofe, and reid into the general population, and make it know that they are in there for child molestation? maybe a little prison justice could convince them.


  31. pluege says:

    Durbin apparently doesn’t realize that islamofascists are really evil X-Men with mutant powers able to defy any prison we can conceive, except of course those off the main land.


  32. katy says:

    well, you know what the idjit troolls will bring up when they DO show up…

    shhhhh. no hints.

    you’ll know it when it gets here.


  33. Tweedster says:

    ralph the wonder locust Says:

    I’m actually curious to see what our oxymoronic friend C4P has to say about this…

    I’m pretty sure he is extremely a-scared of terrorists getting into job placement programs at his local DQ, but he will probably need some time to swathe that fear under some thinly veiled attempt at sounding reasonable.


  34. fletc3her says:

    I don’t see how people who successfully carried out attacks on U.S. soil could be considered less dangerous to our security than people who carried out attacks against foreigners overseas.

    You’d think the people being held at Gitmo were super villains.


  35. 666cicadas says:

    Let’s say (purely for the sake of argument) that these are the most dangerous terrorists in the world… which country’s prison system do our Representative’s hold above our own, why, and why can’t we emulate them in this regard?

    I don’t get it until I remember that they are being held illegally… against an historically and internationally recognized document of rights written almost 800 years ago.


  36. P.D. says:

    Finally, some sanity. This arguement is stupid. And the Repugs know it. They just want to inflame the base that only cares about terrorism. Jeez, there’s a facility in Montana that offered to take 100 prisoners(for the right amount of money, of course). Jeez, the Repugs are acting like they are going to pee in there pants.


  37. Tweedster says:

    pluege Says:

    Durbin apparently doesn’t realize that islamofascists are really evil X-Men with mutant powers able to defy any prison we can conceive, except of course those off the main land.

    Seriously, the Caribbean sea around Cuba is actually like kryptonite to terrists.


  38. misscoleopteramolly says:

    What is Senator Bennett afraid of? Are maximum-security federal prisons easy to break out of? Are these detainees gifted with super powers? Do they have Houdini-like escape skills? What is it about them that would cause skilled and experienced corrections officers to “have no idea what they’re getting into”?

    This situation is making BOTH Republicans (like Bennett) and Democrats (like Reid) look like idiots. Fortunately Durbin still has the ability to reason.


  39. Tweedster says:

    P.D. Says:

    Finally, some sanity. This arguement is stupid. And the Repugs know it. They just want to inflame the base that only cares about terrorism. Jeez, there’s a facility in Montana that offered to take 100 prisoners(for the right amount of money, of course). Jeez, the Repugs are acting like they are going to pee in there pants.

    Proving once again that the GOP does not care one lick about creating jobs.


  40. Hoodathunktick says:

    The strawman fear is just a bit of sleight of hand. The people in Congress using it are really afraid that if these people are brought into the US penal system they will actually get their day in court and the public will find out just how ‘terrifying’ the majority of them really are.


  41. MadasHelinVA says:

    Why oh why DON’T WE HAVE MORE DICK DURBINS representing us in congress? Instead we get those like Reid who is gutless, spineless and apparently afraid of his own shadow. We need more people like Durbin who are NOT afraid of making statements and sticking by them with FACTS! Why can’t the others learn from him?

    Durbin said our fed prisons are holding 370 TERRORISTS, but the ‘FRADY CATS’ in congress are too scared to have Obama close GITMO because these terrorists actually want to ‘come into our backyards’. How dumb is this? The terrorists want nothing more than to leave the U.S. so I hardly think they are going to take time to come into our backyards and look for bar-b-que, gardens or any other mundane items to use as weapons.


  42. ralph the wonder locust says:

    I wonder… how extensively engineered is the prison in Guantanamo? Does that facility compare favorably with, say Fort Leavenworth, or the federal Supermax in Colorado?

    Could it possibly be that much more secure?


  43. ralph the wonder locust says:

    Agreed, Hooda. It’s just a smokescreen to obscure the real fear — that locating them on the mainland would dredge up questions about due process and further drive the legacy of the Bush years into the shitter.


  44. Zooey says:

    “Republicans” and “respect” in the same sentence?

    Ha!


  45. Tired of being lied to says:

    I would place no value on anything Senator Bennett from Utah says or does from now until the election. He is apparently going to face an intra-party challenge from the Utah Attorney General (and even further right-wing whack job), so Bennett is really doing and saying everything possible to stay in the right light.

    He’s an old, tired man, running scared that he is going to offend the ‘true’ Republicans. So he is rebranding himself as a ‘true’ Republican.

    He should be out gardening his tomato patch.


  46. Doodlebug Shayne says:

    Reid is a constant disappointment to Democrats. I’m sure Republicans are happy with him.


  47. Chocolate Jesus says:

    Oh oh might the dems collectively grow enough of a spine to vote ona meeaningless resolution commendating american correctional officers and expressing confidence in thier ability to keep thier prisons safe from any sort of criminals they may contain?

    could we be so lucky?


  48. A Patriotic Anopheles Acting says:

    Dick Cheney seems absolutely terrified of being sent to one of our prisons. Dick Cheney is more dangerous than these alleged muslim terrorists. If Dick is afraid of our prisons obviously they are capable of holding mere mortals.


  49. johnson44 says:

    Typical Dick Turban stupidity!


  50. katy says:

    well, i must admit – i was SURE some trooll would have the perfect durbin anecdote for this thread…

    there’s still time…


  51. Marie says:

    Of course, Durbin is simply pointing out the obvious to the dunderheads who stubbornly behave like chicken little.
    We have incarcerated notorious criminals – and terrorists – without incident — people are falling for the republiscum propaganda of fright and fear of Obama and his policies.
    All correciton officers and institutions should take offense.

    And we don’t even know if these 230 prisoners are criminals at all. They haven’t been tried!

    And what about the prison in Montana that asked for at least 100 of these prisoners?


  52. Marie says:

    I wonder which prison the idiots in Congress who think we would be seeing terrorists checking groceries at the local market would put Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld and Rice?
    Do we have one secure enough for these international terrorists?


  53. Rascalcat says:

    What a dirty trick! Interupting our hyper-ventilating with sensible and resonable thoughts. Dam you, Dick Durban!

    Sincerely,
    The GOP


  54. har5125 says:

    Rascalcat Says:
    ————————————————————–

    What a dirty trick! Interupting our hyper-ventilating with sensible and resonable thoughts. Dam you, Dick Durban!

    Sincerely,
    The GOP

    ————————————————————–

    Rascalcat, thanks for the laugh. That was funny!


  55. EugeneDebs says:

    johnson44 Says:

    Typical Dick Turban stupidity!
    <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

    Normally I would think that you should be an expert on stupidity living your life as, well, YOU one of the stupidest organic beings known to man but that very disability. That is your MONUMENTAL stupidity really precludes anyone with an IQ above room temperature taking ANYTHING you say seriously


  56. Purple State says:

    johnson44 Says:

    Typical Dick Turban stupidity!

    Please tell us, in 50 words or less, why Dick’s stupid for saying this.

    Go.


  57. Lora says:

    I’m willing to give johnson44 even more than 50 words to explain, but I bet he can’t. johnson44 is just another troll who blathers robotically but has nothing valid to say.

    Purple State Says:

    johnson44 Says:
    Typical Dick Turban stupidity!

    Please tell us, in 50 words or less, why Dick’s stupid for saying this.
    Go.


  58. dasm says:

    The GOP is so blatantly anti-American.


  59. fpeleate says:

    Durbin should know about prison guards since his alma mater, Assumption High School in East St. Louis, is now a medium security prison facility just across I-64 from Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club.



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