Obama might pursue criminal charges against Bush administration
I know when I woke up this morning, I thought, "Gee, what could the next administration do to best help the country? I know: they could start an enormous partisan political fight which will consume billions of taxpayer dollars in legal fees, divide the country, exasperate the citizens, and at the very best accomplish nothing, while having the outside chance of crippling the ability of our government to function effectively. Yeah, that's a great idea!"
Dear god, what a horrible disaster Obama would be. I'm sorry: if you are aware of this and you still vote for Obama, you're either an enemy of the country, a partisan fanatic, or a blithering idiot; there's really no other way I can see it. This is quite possibly the stupidest partisan political plan ever, and that's a pretty high bar.
The executive branch has been getting more powerful since the country began. Holding Bush accountable for possible crimes would be good to set a precedent that the president is not above the law.
ReplyDeleteIf Obama or someone who you like even less were elected in the future, wouldn't you rather the precedent be that he be held accountable for his crimes?
If the president has committed actual crimes, he should be impeached while he is in office. That's the way the system works, and it's hard to impeach a sitting president on purpose. If the democrats really thought Bush had done something illegal, they should impeach him. They haven't, so they don't.
ReplyDeleteRather, Obama/Biden are implying that they will abuse the power of the government to prosecute their political enemies in the Bush administration once they are in power, with likely a much lower standard of legal accusation/proof than impeachment would require. This would be about the most blatant and grotesque abuse of power I can imagine in our government.
Yes, I think the president (and his/her administration) should be accountable for crimes: through the mechanism defined in the constitution, not a thoroughly corrupt end-run around justice and perversion of our legal system. The fact that these despicable blowhards would even suggest something this contemptible is inexcusable as far as I am concerned. Pursuing an unpopular war is one thing, systemically ripping apart the legal foundations which allow the government to function is an entirely different level of bad for the country.
If you want to limit the power of the executive branch, the proper place is in Congress and the Supreme Court, and is in respect to particular actions or directives. While I think limiting that power would be a good thing, this is absolutely the wrong way to do it, and nothing but partisan politics at its lowest, meanest, most despicable, and most destructive form.
Any consideration of supporting Obama is gone, period. Moreover, I don't usually try to persuade people I know about politics, but in this case this precedent is so utterly contemptible and destructive that I might have to make an exception, for the sake of the country.
You need to read the whole article:
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When asked about his comments by Fox news today, Biden said he has no evidence that criminal charges would be warranted and no intention of pursuing action against the current president.
"What is true is the United States Congress is trying to preserve records on questions that relate to whether or not the law has been violated by anyone," Biden said, adding: "But, you know, there's been an awful lot of unsavoury stuff that's gone on. And the mere fact … that it occurred in a previous administration doesn't mean [a subsequent] Justice Department, if, in fact, there's evidence, shouldn't pursue them. "But I have no evidence of any of that. No one's talking about pursuing President Bush criminally."
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Can you tell me exactly what bothers you about Obama? Because just based on this one article alone that you link to, it doesn't say what you claim it does. Did you read it? Because here's another quote from the same article that states exactly the opposite of what you say it says:
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Obama sounded a similar note in April, vowing that if elected, he would ask his attorney general to initiate a prompt review of Bush-era actions to distinguish between possible "genuine crimes" and "really bad policies".
"[I]f crimes have been committed, they should be investigated," Obama told the Philadelphia Daily News. "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."
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I think you have a knee-jerk reaction, you haven't really read up on Obama's actual policies or you don't really believe that we need change in this country, you think that the status quo is good for you.
Do you think there should be a double standard where the law is concerned? Some people don't have to play by the rules, like presidents?
"No one's talking about pursuing President Bush criminally."
ReplyDeleteYeah, nobody is talking about it, but you're damn sure strongly implying it, and it doesn't take a political genius to get the very not subtle message.
"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..."
That's Obama for 'hopefully when we do this we can blame the public backlash on the Republicans'. Even Biden admits they don't know of any specific criminal actions on the part of the Bush administration. The actions are the very fricken definition of a partisan witch hunt, for crying out loud. How stupid does Obama think people are?
No, I'm not particularly fond of the status quo; there are many thing I have issue with in the way Bush is running the country. However, all of them pale in comparison to corrupting the inner workings of our government on partisan witch hunts which will impair all future administrations, including Obama's, from being able to run the country. There's a method for prosecuting crimes of members of government, and it's enshrined in the Constitution, and the democrats are doing an end-run around it with a partisan legal nuclear bomb to please their left-wing wacko constituents, and I find it disgusting.
And no, for reference, both presidents and members on Congress don't play by the same rules legally, look it up. They have specific protections to allow them to do their jobs without fear of retribution by political opponents, exactly like this BS. Educate yourself a bit more, and see if your opinion on Obama changes.