The GOP really has become the party of fear. Its latest campaign is to terrify Americans into believing that the Obama administration's decision to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay will result in waves of terrorists overwhelming our maximum security prisons and, by implication, the town squares of Middle America.

Last week, House Republicans introduced a so-called "Keep Terrorists Out of America Act" to block the Obama administration's plans to relocate 241 Gitmo inmates to the United States. It is the kind of mindless fear-mongering in which the Republican Party has long specialized.

In Senate testimony, Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated the administration's promise to consult with state and local officials before moving detainees to U.S. facilities and prisons. Republicans scream that our prisons aren't suitable for Gitmo detainees.

Never mind that serial killers, assassins, drug lords, domestic bombers and Middle East terrorists already call these places home. No wonder it's getting harder to take the GOP seriously.