Obama Can Restore Constitutional Democracy in Two Easy Steps

[Demeter]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fiderer/obama-can-restore-constit_b_150146.html


Ask any computer guy. Five million emails don't disappear by accident, especially in the White House. It takes a lot of hard work, involving deliberate action from a team of seasoned professionals, to make the evidence unretrievable.

The missing emails, many of which were sent by Karl Rove, are a small part of the boundless evidence indicating a conspiracy to obstruct justice within the White House. Eric Holder, our next attorney general, could easily demonstrate sufficient probable cause to get a signed warrant to search documents held by the current president and vice president. Bush and Cheney would not be able to stop the government from moving forward. A search warrant is not the same thing as a subpoena. So, while Bush and Cheney have tied up subpoenas in the courts with bogus claims of executive privilege, they face a far more daunting task if they attempt to stall the government from moving on a warrant. As the Supreme Court unanimously ruled 34 years ago in United States v. Nixon, executive privilege is overcome by the need for evidence in a criminal inquiry.

It's a safe bet that Bush intends to upend such an inquiry by repeating the stunt his father pulled 16 years earlier. George H.W. Bush pardoned Casper Weinberger and effectively shut down an investigation into criminal activities that implicated Bush Sr. in Iran-Contra. But things are different this time. There are so many more people who could be targets for Holder to investigate and prosecute. Given all that went on during this administration, there had to have been a lot of people who looked the other way. Those people are subject to prosecution. Under the century-old doctrine of willful blindness, you can be prosecuted as an accessory if you had reason to believe that criminal acts were being committed under your nose.

Still, in spite of widespread evidence that Bush, Cheney, Rove et al. ran a criminal operation, Obama may be reluctant to use his political capital in pursuit of prior administration officials. (As usual, Barney Frank said it best. After the President-elect referred to himself as post-partisan, Rep Frank said he felt "post-partisan depression.")

But Obama can go a long way toward clearing the air by taking two quick and easy steps. He can simply disclose certain documents concerning the CIA leak and Katrina. Since those disclosures are responsive to bipartisan requests from Congress, they would not polarize Washington, nor would they would not tie up resources in a protracted investigation....

[ixion]

1. our democracy must be restored...and Pelosi and Reid have shown no interest

in doing so. Rather, they pretend(?) to be ignorant of BushCo crimes, and talk of "moving on".

Moving on leaves the original problem in tact, hence the problem becomes worse, not better, by moving on.

The Bush Family Mafia must face accountability for their crimes against humanity, and crimes against FREE citizens of the US.

[salguine]

2. I hate to say it, and I'm sure I'll get my ass flamed off for saying anything negative

about St. Barack, but Obama isn't going to pursue any criminal investigations and/or charges against the outgoing administration. They're going to get away scot-free with everything they did.

His cabinet picks also seem to indicate that he isn't going to deviate from the corporatist policies of recent decades, either. I'm sorry, I'm not buying the "they're there to do his progressive, world-changing bidding" nonsense either. Actions speak much, much louder than words.

[Demeter]

3. That's the Risk We Take

But I'm willing to bet you a nickel he does, in the end, pursue and accomplish serious investigations, prosecutions, and convictions. I think that society and circumstance and the court of the world will make it inevitable.

Barack will be a great President because he will be forced into it, and he has some ethics and sense of responsibility...unlike Pelosi, who isn't worth a bucket of warm spit, and BushCo flunkies, who wouldn't know an ethic if it bit them.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. Some don't want to force Obama into anything tho. Look how hard they fight for his Rick Warren nt

[Demeter]

5. Rick Warren Will Self-Destruct

and inoculate Obama against the homophobes, I'm thinking. Or he is the fig leaf cover under which real, useful civil rights will be advanced to all regardless of the bigots.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. Thanks - I sure hope he innoculates Obama against the phobes and woman-haters because right now...

I don't see Obama upset at all about this homophobe, bigot and woman-hater.

[readmoreoften]

7. I would love to give up that nickel. Would love to.

And it would be the worst nickel I ever took, but unfortunately, I think I would take it if I made that bet. Judging from his cabinet and his advisory committee, I see nothing but corporate reps, CFR types, and so forth. I'm afraid the system isn't broken. The system is working exactly as intended. Obama is part of that system. If he didn't play ball, I'm afraid he wouldn't have made the team.

[Tansy_Gold]

8. Sorry, Demeter, but I'm with Readmoreoften on this.

You know I've been disgusted with Obama's picks for his economic team and underwhelmed by a lot of he others. Though I've said little to nothing about Rick Warren, that particular choice sickened me.

If there's been any change between this incoming administration and the current farce it is only the speed with which Obama has assembled it. And what he's left in his own wake is another mess. He pulls one elected Dem governor out of a state where a right wing whack job of a SoS will take over with a whack job state legislature in her pocket. He pulls a bunch of Dem senators out, leaving their states make replacements, fund special elections, face additional campaigning. He's not to blame for the mess in Illinois, of course, but his selection of Emanuel as CoS was bound to be controversial. Biden gets accused of quasi nepotism. So next thing you know, we're looking at Jeb Bush talking a senate run. . ..

Obama is, first and foremost, all about Obama. And to a great extent that is the way it has to be for someone -- anyone -- to aspire to the presidency. But I think those of us who blindly follow him, make up glib excuses for some of the things he does, are just as goofy as the 23% who toddle faithfully in boooosh's wake.

I make no bones about my being a Hillary supporter in the primaries, but I also made it very clear that I would and could heartily support whichever Dem got the nomination. And I did that. But I never ignored my initial reservations about Obama.

One was his public proclamation of his Christian faith. He wore that virtual cross on his sleeve much more prominently than any flag pin on a lapel. He was too hesitant to cut the cord to Rev. Wright, and as a white person I understood enough about what Rev Wright said to suspect that it would have been politically expedient for Obama to repudiate him from the start. Why didn't he? Well, he couldn't say it was because he agreed with him even though that might be the truth. But it was also, imho, because Obama has much stronger ties to traditional christianity and its traditional teachings than many of us progressives would like. And I do believe his selection of Warren for the invocation is a further proclamation of that -- not just to the evangelical repuke base but to the non-christian and especially the non-believer base that got him elected.

Now I understand perfectly well that in part his public embrace of christianity was a politcal counter to the many claims of his "really being" a muslim. I have friends who still believe it. But they believe it despite all his protestations to the contrary. NOTHING is going to change their minds. I certainly gave up trying a long time ago. But Obama hasn't. And that remains a concern for me.

My other concern was his lack of experience. And I don't mean his lack of executive experience or his age or any of the usual gripes. Rather I questioned whether he had established a sufficient network to pull from in order to assemble an administration what would truly work toward the changes we all need. And sadly, I haven't seen any indication that he's done so. His economic team is full of same old, same old guys, most of whom have plenty of experience doing the wrong thing. Not agents of change. Most important, of course, were his choices for his economic team, and at a time when the economy is in crisis and has affected or could potentially affect so many lives, that's where we truly need change. I don't think we're going to get it. Not now, not yet.

With those two initial reservations about Obama being reinforced rather than refuted by his transition period, I'm not overly optimistic. Maybe it's because it's cold in Arizona this morning and I don't like cold, but those two aspects of the coming Obama presidency continue to gnaw at me. I remain hopeful, but not overly so. And a lot less than I was during the glory hours of 4 November.


Putting my nickel on the table,


Tansy Gold

(edited to fix some of the typos; contacts not in yet and fingers too cold)