Scott Brown’s stunning victory in Massachusetts Tuesday triggered a wave of dire predictions about health reform, but Brown’s win also could pose a threat to a less obvious aspect of President Barack Obama’s agenda – his anti-terror policies and plans to shut down Guantanamo Bay prison.
During the campaign, Brown repeatedly railed against criminal trials for terrorism suspects, took out a television ad opposing giving “rights to terrorists who want to harm us” and declared that he did not view water-boarding as torture. And in his nationally televised victory speech Tuesday night, the senator-elect seized on the issue again.
“I believe that our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation - they do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in wartime,” Brown said. “In dealing with terrorists, our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend them.”
Republicans already have attacked Obama for his plans to shut Guantanamo Bay by relocating detainees to a U.S. prison, and to hold terrorism trials in civilian courts, such as trying 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City.
Two advisers to Brown, strategist Eric Fehrnstrom and pollster Neil Newhouse, said yesterday that they believed the terrorism issue actually broke more in Brown’s favor than did his opposition to Obama’s health care reform plan.
“National security was a more potent issue than health care, based on the polling we saw, on dealing with terrorists as ordinary criminals versus enemy combatants,” Fehrnstrom told reporters in Boston.
Newhouse told POLITICO that he was initially dubious about gaining traction on the issue but at Fehrnstrom’s urging put a question on terrorism out on two nights of polling in early January. “It really tested through the roof,” the pollster said. “There’s no question that this played a role in defining the candidates and framing their values.”
“On the issue of dealing with accused terrorists, for whom would you vote for U.S. Senate if you knew that Scott Brown believes that accused terrorists should be treated as enemy combatants and face military justice [and] Martha Coakley believes that accused terrorists should be provided constitutional rights and tried in civilian courts?” the Brown camp’s poll asked. Respondents split 61% to 29% in Brown’s favor, Newhouse said.
Newhouse said he thinks the way the terrorism issue played out in Massachusetts will draw the notice of lawmakers and political candidates nationwide. “If voters in Massachusetts are telling us that, and it’s one of the more liberal states in the country, I can only imagine where Ohio, Pennsylvania or Colorado voters might be on something like this,” the pollster said. “I think it’s got ramifications for this year’s elections.”
“Everyone wants to credit the health care bill for Scott Brown’s win. I credit his stance on terrorism for his win,” said Michele McPhee, a radio talk show host who regularly hosted Brown on her program. “People forget the planes on 9/11 left from Logan Airport. There are a lot of 9/11 families around here.”
McPhee said the issue caught the attention of voters in November when Attorney General Eric Holder announced plans to bring alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men to New York City for trial in a federal court. McPhee said voters became even more focused on the subject after the failed Christmas Day plot to blow up an airliner near Detroit.
“As liberal a bastion as we are, I think people take umbrage, whether you are left or right, at Khalid Sheikh Mohammed laughing his head off in a taxpayer-funded cell at a billion dollars a year. Even the biggest moonbat can’t wrap their arms around that,” McPhee said. “It’s symbolic of how out of touch some politicians are.”
Coakley stoked the issue further by stating in a debate last week that she did not believe any terrorists remained in Afghanistan. And Brown’s campaign drew attention to the subject when they brought former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to Boston’s North End for a rally last Friday.
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