Barr is right, twice.

I have no special love for my former Congressman, Bob Barr. He defeated my friend, and a good Congressman, Buddy Darden. He led the effort to impeach President Bill Clinton for boorish personal behavior -- Clinton deserved it, the nation didn't.

But since he has been freed from any real political power or influence, doggone if Barr ain't occasionally sensible. He writes "The Barr Code" for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In today's article he rightly praises President Obama's refurbishing of America's Middle East policies.

If the Obama administration follows through on the president’s vision presented last week in the centuries-old mosque, then American influence in that troubled part of the world, which has fallen dramatically in recent years, is certain to increase.

- former Republican Congressman Bob Barr

Recently he took congressional Democrats and Republicans to task for their nonsensical refusal to support the President on closing the Guantanamo prison.

The manner in which grown men and women in the United States Congress are fretting over the possibility that some of the Guantanamo detainees may wind up being incarcerated in federal civilian and military prisons on the mainland, illustrates yet again how tight a grip FEAR has on public policy in post-911 America...

...The president has made a policy decision to close the detention facility at Guantanamo. Members of Congress ought to have the backbone to vote for or against the president’s plan based on its merits, not hide behind irrational fear that somehow a super-human terrorist will be able to scale the walls of the Supermax prison and wreak havoc on a community in their district.

- former Republican Congressman Bob Barr

I personally will support the President if he decides to place terrorists at the Atlanta pen. I'll have no more fear of them than I have of the other violent men at that facility.