As the Obami’s national-security policies — Mirandizing terrorists, trying KSM in New York, closing Guantanamo — fall one by one in swift succession following the wake-up election in Massachusetts and the Christmas Day bombing fiasco, one senses that there is a bit of a cat-and-mouse game going on. The Obami can’t come right out and say, “We messed up! By gosh, the Bush folks got it right.” (They can, but they can’t bring themselves to, for that would be an admission that their entire campaign was fundamentally wrong and their indictment of those who kept us safe for seven and a half years terribly misguided.) Nor can the administration proceed with untenable and hugely unpopular policies.

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers are anxious to create a little distance between themselves and the cratering administration and to get away from the impression that all these harebrained ideas were theirs. The solution: Congress will be the instrument for undoing the Obami’s Not Bush anti-terror policies.

Yesterday was a case in point. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer stepped forward to throw cold water on the proposed transfer of Guantanamo detainees to Illinois. Politico reported:

The second-ranking House Democrat signaled Tuesday that the White House is reconsidering a plan to move Guantanamo detainees to a prison in northwest Illinois. … “I think the administration realizes that this is a difficult issue,” Hoyer said, speaking at his weekly meeting with Capitol Hill reporters. “And I think that they are assessing where they are and where they think we ought to be, and I think that’s appropriate and I look forward to discussing it with them.”

It is not clear whether the administration is really assessing this all on their own or whether Hoyer is forcing the Obama team to do so by signaling there is no support among Democrats to facilitate the move of dangerous detainees to the “heartland,” as Liz Cheney likes to refer to the Thomson Correctional Facility. Either way, what is clear is that more responsible Democrats like Hoyer and those who appeared yesterday to block the KSM trial are not leaving this in the hands of the Obama administration. The latter has already proved itself to be both tone-deaf and lacking in common sense. The result should work out to everyone’s satisfaction: the Obami can “blame” Congress, Congress can take credit for protecting the country from the Justice Department, the Republicans can claim victory, and the public can rest assured that they will be safer and more secure.