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hearings is that, as we saw with Iran-Contra, those who get immunity (by hook or by crook) either as an incentive to testify or as a result of testifying, become the heros of the right.
Another huge problem is that no legal precedents emerge from truth commissions or congressional hearings. In contrast, several legal precedents were established in cases in the aftermath of the Nixon proceedings -- all the results of litigation. Other important issues were decided in the course of the Clinton scandal. If the United States pursues the less confrontational truth commission or congressional hearing route in dealing with the Bush administration's many crimes, basic issues of law that arose during the Bush era will remain undecided.
That would be tragic for future generations of Americans and a total cop-out by our generation. Why? Because what was at issue during the Bush administration was not just whether Bush committed a crime by eavesdropping, torturing or using the Justice Department for political vendettas, but just what authority a president, any president has under our Constitution. Is something, anything, legal because the president says it is? Is something, anything, legal because the president says it is in the interest of national security or vital to our military forces? Is the president bound by legislative strictures such as the FISA Act?
These questions must be answered, and neither a Truth Commission nor Congress has the total authority to answer them. We have three branches of government. Bush ignored the legislative branch (and sometimes the judicial branch) as he wished. Now, Leahy wants to ignore the judicial branch.
But he is wrong. Ultimately it is up to the Supreme Court to decide whether Bush's conduct, his interpretation of the theory of the unitary executive, complied with the Constitution.
Unfortunately, the Senate, without thinking, and to appease the right-wing, voted to confirm Roberts and Alito to the Supreme Court -- both believed to be apologists for the unitary executive theory that Bush invoked to justify his power grabs.
So, Leahy, you were in the Senate when Alito and Roberts were confirmed. What now? The Senate took the 30 pieces of silver in exchange for the confirmations. Are you and the other senators who were responsible for those confirmations now going to go off and hang the whole country by delaying legal battles about the basic constitutional issues that have been dividing our country since the Nixon era until a more amenable court is in place?
The choices at this point are pretty grim. Continue to live in the haze of uncertainty about just what powers Congress and the president have and risk another Bush, or hold a friendly little whitewash hearing that lasts until some of the most important witnesses have died. Thank you Senators Leahy, Reid and Lieberman. You will be remembered in history for your decisions.
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