CIA Prisons and Gitmo

there was a request below to talk more about the CIA prisons. This whole thing has me concerned. The president has moved 14 "high value targets" from our 'secret prisons'. This is as by the numbers Karl Rove as it gets:

Bush wants the congress to put into law all the illegal procedures he just assumed on his own. He's been getting heat over gitmo. So what does he do? he puts the true nasty guys on display. THESE are the people he claims gave us 50% of our Al Qeada intelligence came from these 14 guys. now he'll be able to put a face on gitmo. they'll no longer just be some nameless guys who might actually be innocent. They'll have the 14 worst to point to during any debate. When it comes to pitching the new laws, they'll be able to say THESE rules are what we used on the 14. they will say THIS is what kept us safe for the last 5 years. The Iraq war will be blended into the war on terrorism and they will try to ride this all the way into the elections.

the good or bad of any of this...the prisons, the prisoners, the laws...whatever. it is meaningless at this point. there's no policy involved. it's all about trying to work the one thing the public hasn't given up on when it comes to the GOP. this is their only bet as a national policy.

the problem for me is that i actually think it will work for them. It isn't that the Democrats have no answer to this. it's that they don't have a good articulation of a unified answer to this. I guess that's my worst case scenerio. the saving grace? GOP candidates have been reluctant to carry the water on this because Bush is so unpopular. the desire is to localize their races. THAT may be what hamstrings this national GOP push. If the Democrats don't get better at framing the debate now, it won't get easier in the future.