Yes, Mr. President, I understand it's a pain in the neck. I understand that while trying to clean up the messes caused by the Bushies, you don't want to waste time, energy and political capital on prosecuting them for their crimes. But I really don't think we have a choice.
While reading Dana Priest's piece in the Post this morning http://www.msnbc.msn.com/... it really hit me again. Because this sounds so good;
...the notion that a president can circumvent long-standing U.S. laws simply by declaring war was halted by executive order in the Oval Office.
It sounds good but it's wrong. The notion wasn't halted at all. The practice may have been halted for now but unless Obama believes he is president for ever, nothing has been fundamentally changed. This is just one president saying he won't be doing what the last one was doing. There is nothing about this action to stop the next one.
There will come another time of fear under another president. Because Obama knows he will not always be that president, he knows it is only the rule of law that can ultimately guard against the exact same abuses of power we have seen in the past eight years. It doesn't take a genius (obviously) to take advantage of fear and jingoism to circumvent the constitution and grab almost unlimited power. It will almost certainly happen again.
I believe that President Obama understands the nature of our constitution and he has probabaly wrestled hard with these questions as he takes office. I understand his current choice and the calculation behind trying to get as many people of both parties on board, as soon as possible, to avert economic disaster. In his position, I may have taken the same path. But I'm not in his position and I think sweeping the Bush crimes under the rug is not a luxury we can afford to let him have. The rule of law must be affirmed and strengthened in the wake of the Bush disaster.
So don't let the wingnuts take advantage of Obama's position to silence us. I read, day after day, editorials about how we can't waste the country's time on prosecutions simply to satisfy the revenge fantasies of 'liberals.' That's absolute bull. It has nothing to do with the satisfaction many would take from seeing justice served on Bush and his cronies. That enjoyment would be nothing more than a side effect. It's not the reason for doing it. The rule of law is the reason. It's to ensure that my daughters don't spend their adult lives railing against the next wingnut president as he follows the path blazed by Bush and takes us deeper into the weeds.
Mr. President, I'm going to make noise on this. I share your optimism about the possibilities of what we can accomplish. But I just can't believe that leading by example now is going to be enough to stave off the next round of constitutional destruction, whether it's five years or fifty after you leave office. There must be a penalty for doing what George W Bush and those who pulled his strings have done. Or it will probably be done again, and worse.