Posted on 10/13/2008 5:39:24 PM PDT by Red Steel
Tonight I had an opportunity to ask Barack Obama a question that is on the minds of many Americans, yet rarely rises to the surface in the great ruckus of the 2008 presidential race -- and that is whether an Obama administration would seek to prosecute officials of a former Bush administration on the revelations that they greenlighted torture, or for other potential crimes that took place in the White House.
Obama said that as president he would indeed ask his new Attorney General and his deputies to "immediately review the information that's already there" and determine if an inquiry is warranted -- but he also tread carefully on the issue, in line with his reputation for seeking to bridge the partisan divide. He worried that such a probe could be spun as "a partisan witch hunt." However, he said that equation changes if there was willful criminality, because "nobody is above the law."
The question was inspired by a recent report by ABC News, confirmed by the Associated Press, that high-level officials including Vice President Dick Cheney and former Cabinet secretaries Colin Powell, John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld, among others, met in the White House and discussed the use of waterboarding and other torture techniques on terrorism suspects.
I mentioned the report in my question, and said "I know you've talked about reconciliation and moving on, but there's also the issue of justice, and a lot of people -- certainly around the world and certainly within this country -- feel that crimes were possibly committed" regarding torture, rendition, and illegal wiretapping. I wanted to know how whether his Justice Department "would aggressively go after and investigate whether crimes have been committed."
Here's his answer, in its entirety:
"What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that's already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can't prejudge that because we don't have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated. You're also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve.
So this is an area where I would want to exercise judgment -- I would want to find out directly from my Attorney General -- having pursued, having looked at what's out there right now -- are there possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And I think it's important-- one of the things we've got to figure out in our political culture generally is distinguishing betyween really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity. You know, I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I've said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for exceptional circumstances. Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law -- and I think that's roughly how I would look at it."
The bottom line is that: Obama sent a clear signal that -- unlike impeachment, which he's ruled out and which now seems a practical impossibility -- he is at the least open to the possibility of investigating potential high crimes in the Bush White House. To many, the information that waterboarding -- which the United States has considered torture and a violation of law in the past -- was openly planned out in the seat of American government is evidence enough to at least start asking some tough questions in January 2009.
I guess we can expect ACORN to get investigated in 8 years...
I’ve had plenty of issues with GWB, but if someone wanted to put him in jail over the GWOT, I would gladly join a Million Man March on Washington, DC - ARMED!
But I don't know who to be more angry at, Bush or McCain. I am angry at Bush in this context, for failing to enforce the law on the border, for failure to prosecute potentially criminal leaks at the CIA, for caving in to demands for a prosecutor in the Valerie Plame affair, for cravenly echoing liberals when they decry that leak as something worthy of national attention, for failure to prosecute voter fraud, for the attempted appointment of Harriet Myers, for failure to make its case on these issues to the American public and thereby permit his own reputation and the Republican brand to be brought to the verge of distruction.
In a perverse way, I can almost draw schadenfreude for the idea that Bush's folly and naïveté might finally brought home to him when he is prosecuted by the very people he sought to appease. But I can take no solace from that daydream because I know that at heart Bush is a good man who is very goodness prevented him from getting down into the muck with the Democrats and fighting his corner.
I am angry at John McCain. I am angry at John McCain for his failure to see his duty to morally destroy Barak Obama. Here again, my anger is tempered by the belief that his epiphany in his cell at the Hanoi Hilton was genuine and that he is proceeding from a conviction of the heart which is the heart of the patriot but not the heart of a partisan.
Both of these good men are leading the conservative cause to destruction with the best of intentions.
these people scare the hell out of me.
since i was in college they’ve been destroying the intellectual tradition based upon judeo-christian values and the enlightenment.
meanwhile, their unions have virtually destroyed urban public schools.
the mainstream media they control.
and, indian casino gambling, prostitution, and drugs have spread across the country.
I am amazed that no one, so far, noticed this outrageous comment by Obama, i.e., “You’re also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we’ve got too many problems we’ve got to solve.”
Who in blazes does this arrogant quisling think he is to think he is already entitled to a second term when he has not yet been elected to a first term? This guy is a complete narcissist and a dangerous one at that.
Yes!
Does anyone know if that has ever been done before—a new administration looking for criminality on the old administration?
More specifically has a new President targeted a former resident “looking for criminal acts”
It sounds like a dangerous precident, I could care less how carefully he addressed the issue.
Ok.. a little devil’s advocate thinking here.
Obama wants to move as quickly as possible to satisfy his rabid base. The previous administration will be immediately exonerated, Obama takes the the heat because its the honeymoon so he can with minor damage, and he wants absolutely NOTHING to occur that might diminish his own power. He won’t risk setting this precedent unless he thinks he will never be out of power. And the MESSIAH gets to look wise and charitable.
On the other hand, maybe he thinks he will never be out of power.
I have a much higher opiniion of Bush than McCain. I do think there is substance to your claims against both of them.
I still believe conservatives criticize Bush unfairly and romantize Reagan’s failings to a vice.
I think Reagan’s conduct of Lebanon was atrocious and sharply contrasted by Bush’s tough determination in Iraq. I think Bush has truly defeated the vietnam syndrom as no other American president. That is a vitally important point.
Moreover, the Kurdish genocide has been erased from public discussion despite the new prominece given to genocide as a policy criteria.
That is proof positive that Bush was profoundly and historically great. History is being blotted out to prevent his legacy. It won’t work.
He will go down as an incredible leader. Even if McCain wins, he will be quite lame in comparison. Conservatives will reluctantly realize this as well.
Things will deteriorate rapidly after the election—not only for members of the Bush cabinet, but for the rest of us. It reminds me of the unrest in ‘67 and 68, but worse in some ways.
This sounds like a Banana Republic, where the deposed leaders are marched out and executed.
So the incoming administration is going to punish the outgoing administration? This is not a road I would care to start down. But authoritarian regimes like to punish their political opponents.
seems like i remember Bush saying the he was going to move on and not look into any of the Clinton/Gore shenanigans.
It is so disappointing and disgusting that Bush refused to pardon Border Agents Ramos and Campion, that he may now be on the receiving end of finding out what it’s like to be wrongly accused. Those poor men have suffered immeasurably because of Bush’s stubbornness.
I think we might make a huge mistake to put Bush in this equation.
We have had eight years of President Bush. I do not nor have I ever agreed with all of his policies. I have strongly disagreed with him on many issues. I find myself scratching my head more often than not these days.
That being said, he was the right person at the right time. God help us if Gore had been President on 9/11.
I also think we tend to forget how the GOP slowly parted ways with Bush when the mid-term elections came up. They allowed the dems to shape any debate or issue rather than show some real balls.
I have no doubt Obama would persue an investigation if he was following Reagan. Obama wants to change our system.
As I have posted before:
.....Obama clearly agreed with me at the time that a shift in constitutional thinking from a rights-based discourse to one that centered [on] responsibility and duties ... would be a good thing, West told Politico. Partly because of those conversations, I dont find it surprising at all that Sen. Obamas speeches are often marked by calls to spark a sense of responsibility, rather than a sense of grievance.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11257.html
That means an Obama administration will be embroiled in endless partisan investigations overshadowing every other issue. Wonderful! Not.
(Good thing he's a bipartisan uniter, and not just another vindictive politician!)
Sounds like a Soviet style pogrom to me. First the accusations, then the kangaroo courts.
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