Gitmo Silence Broken (Barely)

It has been a long time since Guantanamo came up and last week it took David Letterman to do it. In an otherwise softball interview, the CBS Late Show host pressed Obama senior advisor David Axelrod on whether it was a "tactical mistake" for the president to begin his administration promising to close the detention camp -- since it wasn't done.

Axelrod then proceeded to give all the usual reasons for delay, mainly that poor records on the charges make it difficult to determine which of the prisoners are truly dangerous. He also cited a dispute with Congress on whether to move them to prisons in the U.S. He said that about one-third of the prisoners have been moved out.

The president's plan for civilian trials got off to a rocky start. A federal judge in New York barred the use of testimony produced by torture, forcing prosecutors to seek a delay because, apparently, without torture there's no case. (That's what happens when you start applying the law in real courts instead of military tribunals.)

The Guantanamo issue has gone silent on Capitol Hill and the White House is not pushing. But I guess the best way to gauge an issue's loss of potency is when a comedy host seems to be the only one left on the national stage who cares about it.

Craig blogs daily for CQ-Roll Call