Just a historical note on the level of debate coming from the Republicans courtesy of the New York Times:

The House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois, said, "The same terrorists who plan to harm innocent Americans and their freedoms would be coddled, if we followed the Democratic plan."

So the person who's been a "party" to one of the most disasterous policies in modern U.S. history -- a policy that's made the terrorist threat worse, that's encouraged the recruitment of "jihadists" near and far and seen an increase in the number of serious terrorist attacks worldwide -- that person is calling the Democratic plan "coddling"? Heck of a job he's done! Thank God, we've got experts like him and his Republican friends calling the shots. What would the terrorists do without them?