Inside the Beltway: Europeans weary of a borderless world

NEWS AND OPINION:

A borderless Europe is falling out of vogue among uneasy Germans, French and Italians who are now unnerved by recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, according to a new poll published Tuesday. Majorities in the three nations would prefer their governments end “Schengen” — an agreement that allows people to travel within 26 European nations without showing a passport. The Institut Francais d’Opinion Publique, a French polling company, found that 66 percent of Germans and 60 percent of Italians were against Schengen. Among the French, the number was 72 percent.

The attacks in Brussels and Paris “stoked the feeling that things have escalated out of control,” research director Jerome Fourquet told Suddeutsche Zeitung, a national newspaper based in Munich. “Before, people always said that an end to Schengen would mean the beginning of the end of the whole EU.”

STILL VIGILANT AGAINST GITMO

Yes, there is new Republican legislation meant to counter President Obama’s determination to close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility. Introduced by Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, the Detaining Terrorists to Protect Americans Act bars the White House from transferring any detainee to any foreign country and quashes efforts to close the site or transfer prisoners to jails on these shores. Sen. Tim Scott has quickly signed on as a co-sponsor; the South Carolina lawmaker has pushed back for months over suggestions that Guantanamo prisoners be transferred to a jail in his own state.

“While the Obama administration seems willing to ignore the national safety interests of America with their ongoing actions, I will not,” he says, noting that many other nations are ill-equipped to take on Guantanamo prisoners. “Unlike the president, I believe we should not only not be releasing terrorists from Gitmo, but we should be filling it up with captured members of ISIS and other terrorist groups.”

BERNIE’S WARNING

Drama isn’t confined to the Republican presidential cause alone; it appears to be escalating among the two Democratic hopefuls.

“One of the Clinton campaign’s largest super PACs, the one run by former Republican hatchet man David Brock, has ratcheted up its attacks dramatically,” warns Jeff Weaver, campaign manager for Sen. Bernard Sanders, in a message to the candidate’s followers.

“But their attacks over the past week are nothing compared to what we can expect if we win Wisconsin,” Mr. Weaver predicts. “The Clinton campaign and its super PACs are going to throw everything they can at us, and we need to be prepared to fight, organize and win in New York.”

CLINTON VS. SANDERS, ONE MORE TIME

There’s always room for one more debate. CNN has managed to corral Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernard Sanders to face off at a live debate next week from the Duggal Greenhouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in the great state of New York. The Duggal Greenhouse? The two candidates will have quite a venue. The Duggal Greenhouse is a spectacular event site with 70-foot ceilings, walls of glass and steel and views of water and skyline, complete with solar energy and “organic air purification,” among other things. Former President Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg both have spoken there.

The debate is April 14, five days before the Empire State’s primary, to be moderated by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, with help from CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash and political commentator Errol Louis.

CHELSEA MOMENTUM

In the next 48 hours, there are eleven fundraisers for Hillary Clinton’s campaign; her pregnant daughter Chelsea Clinton will be hosting six of them in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The younger Clinton, whose baby is due somewhere around June, has told audiences that her obstetrician has approved her travel and appearances as long as she is not standing up too much. But the expectant mother is also ramping up her own brand of campaign rhetoric, prompting some observers to wonder if she’s considering running for political office herself.

“I think that the level of vitriol goes beyond anything that we certainly have seen in contemporary times in this election,” she said during a recent press conference in Milwaukee. “The normalization of hate speech, the racism, the sexism, Islamophobia, the anti-immigrant rhetoric, the homophobia, the rhetoric against worker’s rights, against Americans with disabilities. I mean, the list just goes on and on and on. I mean, this is not our country; these are not our values.”

MEGYN’S OTHER OPTIONS

Fox News recently announced it planned to produce a one-hour talk-and-interview show for prime-time host Megyn Kelly, who clashes, from time to time, with Republican front-runner Donald Trump. The analysts are watching.

“Your contract is up after the election. Have you decided if you’re staying at Fox News?” Variety’s New York bureau chief Ramin Setoodeh asked Ms. Kelly.

“I haven’t,” she replied. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’ve had a great 12 years here, and I really like working for Roger Ailes. I really like my show, and I love my team. But, you know, there’s a lot of brain damage that comes from the job. There was probably less brain damage when I worked in the afternoon. I was less well known. I had far less conflict in my life.”

She later added, “I do love covering the news. I just don’t think that’s the perfect thing for me.”

POLL DU JOUR

• 69 percent of U.S. college students say campuses should be able to restrict slurs or language offensive to “certain groups.”

• 63 percent say campuses should be able to restrict the wearing of costumes that stereotype racial or ethnic groups.

• 49 percent say it’s legitimate to restrict the press at a protest if participants “believe the press will be unfair to them.”

• 48 percent say it’s legitimate to restrict the press at a protest because participants “have a right to be left alone.”

• 44 percent say it’s legitimate to restrict the press at a protest if participants “want to tell their own story online or in social media.

Source: A Gallup/Knight Foundation poll of 3.072 U.S. college students conducted Feb. 29 to March 15 and released Tuesday.

Cranky outbursts and calm assessments to jharper@washingtontimes.com