"We're not going to bring al-Qaeda to Big Sky Country -- no way, not on my watch." —Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.)
Meanwhile, a $27 million prison located in Hardin, Montana -- the "poorest town in the state" -- sits empty. Empty! Moving 100 Guantanamo detainees to the prison would create 100 new jobs in Hardin. The town's economic development director, Greg Smith, and local politicians are practically begging for the detainees to be moved there:
Earlier this month, Hardin's town council voted unanimously to offer the US government a deal: Send Hardin the detainees that most foreign countries and other cities the US are afraid to take.
"Why not us?" Smith asks. "They've got to go somewhere."
He dismisses security concerns over housing inmates former Bush administration officials famously described as "the worst of the worst".
"We have some very hardened criminals in our own country that have committed some heinous crimes, and they are in communities all across this country," Smith argues.
But not on Max Baucus's cowardly watch.