SOME COMMON SENSE COMING? – AT 5:55 P.M. ET:  Maybe, just maybe, the Obamans will finally realize that trying the mastermind of 9-11 in a civilian New York courtroom is an awful, terrible, ignorant, and clownish idea.  And it's unpopular, too.  Michael Isikoff of Newsweek has some news that gives us a bit of optimism:

Top administration officials are getting nervous that they may not be able to proceed with one of their most controversial national-security moves: trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused 9/11 conspirators in federal court in New York City.

I'm glad for their nervousness.  It's long in coming.

...because of shifting political winds in Congress, the trial is now "potentially in jeopardy," a senior official, who did not want to be named talking about a sensitive situation, tells NEWSWEEK. The chief concern: that Republicans will renew attempts to strip funding for the trial and, in the aftermath of the bombing attempt aboard Northwest Flight 253, pick up enough support from moderate Democrats to prevail.

Unless of course the moderate Dems wimp out in the end, which is their glorious tradition, told in story and song.

"I'm afraid it's probably going to pass," says Democratic Rep. Jim Moran, who has strongly backed the administration on the issue.

One of the scummier members of Congress, Moran is sympathetic to Arab and Muslim causes, and maybe thinks KSM can do some advertising for the righteous during his trial.

Another big factor? The price tag. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently sent a letter to the White House budget office seeking more than $216 million to provide security for the trial this year—and more than $200 million for each year after that. The figures have prompted some critics to say that, given the years a complex conspiracy case could take, the final cost could approach $1 billion.

I'd rather see that money go for veterans' hospitals to take care of the troops who fight the terror forces and their allies.

The Justice Department has yet to indict the suspects, nor has it given Congress the required 45-day notice that it plans to bring them to New York. But spokesman Matthew Miller says the attorney general remains "committed to bringing to justice those allegedly responsible for the murder of nearly 3,000 people"—and "we can do it in trials that are safe, secure, and respected around the world."

Oh, right.  They'll be "respected around the world" until the defense raises one objection.  Then the headlines in Europe will read NEW YORK TRIAL, FAIRNESS OR A SHAM?  You can just see it coming.

If Holder's plans are thwarted, though, one top administration official, who also didn't want to be named talking about delicate issues, notes there is a Plan B—reviving the case against the alleged 9/11 conspirators before a military tribunal, just as the Bush administration tried to do.

Three cheers for Plan B.  Good then, good now.

January 24, 2010