Under “Friendly Fire”… ACLU’s Romero predicts Obama will be swallowed in “legal morass” like Bush

Flopping Aces ^ | 05-21-09 | Mataharley

[Starman417]

Ah yes... another day, another "off the record" meeting with the Obama admin and some leaked tidbits of a stand off between an Obama in "remarkable command" of the issues and his liberal base of multiple legal eagle and human rights organizations.

Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reports on Obama's "friendly fire" in a 75 minute long meeting that highlighted tensions, and left many of Obama's leftist base disappointed.

According to three sources who attended the meeting, Obama reiterated his intention to retain a version of the military-tribunal system established to try terror detainees and said his administration will likely end up adopting some form of "indefinite detention" policy to justify holding some selected suspects without trial. Still, Obama brusquely rejected suggestions by some of those present that, in doing so, he was adopting key tenets of Bush-era policies considered unacceptable by his liberal supporters.

"It doesn't help to equate me to Bush," Obama said, arguing that such comparisons overlook important differences between the two administrations' policies, according to several sources attending the meeting.

The sources, all of whom asked not to be identified because of the White House insistence that the meeting was private, also said Attorney General Eric Holder sat by silently while the president curtly dismissed the idea that his Justice Department should criminally prosecute at least one Bush administration official for torture, if only as a symbolic move to demonstrate that actions such as waterboarding will never be tolerated again.

American Civil Liberties Union executive director, Anthony Romero, was one of those less than thrilled, but did go on the record with Newsweek... despite the others declining to do the same based on the WH's insistance that the meeting was "private".

Obama showed a "remarkable command" of the issues, Romero said. But, he added, "it is disappointing that he appears poised to continue with many of the Bush policies that have ended in failure. If he goes down that track, President Obama will find himself in the same legal morass that swallowed up George Bush."

I think we've all "got it" now that Obama has every intention of continuing "on that track"...

Yesterday's meeting preceded his speech this morning at the National Archives... a maneuever designed to "regain control of the debate" and combat Wednesday's "stunning setback" with the Senate voting to refuse funding to close Guantanamo. At least one key Dem, senior member of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Alcee Hastings, is planning legislation ordering Gitmo remain open, but assures the world there's no "torture" going on. Meanwhile, Harry Reid and others basically said, nice speech, but no "game changer". Where's the plan?

The same day of this meeting, U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled that the Obama admin could, indeed, hold some of the detainees at Gitmo indefinitely, and without charges.

Uh... wasn't that the beef with Dubya? This "indefinite detention" bit, extended primarily by the detainees' lawyers litigation delays, had the O'faithful up in arms. And now... slipping into the final paragraphs of an MSNBC article.. is a single, brief paragraph casually mentioning a US District Judge now bestows his blessings to do just that.

I swear I am living in a parallel universe, right?

According to Isikoff, the WH is less stressed over the GOP and Cheney criticisms than they are over their own base. And tho this may have been billed as a "listening" session, it didn't turn out that way.

[tet68]

Obama knows better than his far left supporters, a show trial investigation of Bush sets the precident of an investigation of Obama next time.
He’s not gonna want that, as fast and loose as he’s been with the constitution.