1 Boring Old Man

Something New:

As advertised, I asked some others to contribute opinions. Ralph is the first taker [below]. I’ll post other reactions as [or if] they come in. Feel free to comment or contribute. It’s an important question.

Will We Ever Learn the Truth?
By Dan Froomkin

^{Will we ever find out what President Bush really did in our name? There’s so much we still don’t know — about torture, warrantless wiretapping, and the politicization of the Justice Department, just for starters. Once Bush leaves office, will there be congressional investigations? Criminal investigations? Bipartisan commission investigations? Will President Obama make public all the relevant records? Will ex-president Bush still try to assert executive privilege? Will it work?}

^{Charlie Savage explores some of these questions in today’s New York Times. In 1953, Congress established "a precedent suggesting that former presidents wield lingering powers to keep matters from their administration secret," he writes. "Now, as Congressional Democrats prepare to move forward with investigations of the Bush administration, they wonder whether that claim may be invoked again. Topics of open investigations include the harsh interrogation of detainees, the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, secret legal memorandums from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and the role of the former White House aides Karl Rove and Harriet E. Miers in the firing of federal prosecutors."}

^{"Investigators hope that the Obama administration will open the filing cabinets and withdraw assertions of executive privilege that Bush officials have invoked to keep from testifying." But, as Savage notes, it is not clear "how a President Barack Obama will handle such requests. Legal specialists said the pressure to investigate the Bush years would raise tough political and legal questions…}

^{And even "if Mr. Obama decides to release information about his predecessor’s tenure, Mr. Bush could try to invoke executive privilege by filing a lawsuit, said Peter Shane, a law professor at Ohio State University. "In that case, an injunction would most likely be sought ordering the Obama administration not to release the Bush administration’s papers or enjoining Mr. Bush’s former aides from testifying. The dispute would probably go to the Supreme Court, Mr. Shane said."}

^{Carrie Johnson writes in The Washington Post that Obama advisors charged with overhauling the Justice Department don’t quite know where to begin, though "topping the list of concerns is the Office of Legal Counsel, a once-obscure operation whose advice guides some of the government’s most sensitive and controversial policies, from domestic wiretapping to the appropriateness of handing out public funding to religious groups…}

Bush, Out of Office, Could Oppose Inquiries
By CHARLIE SAVAGE

^{When a Congressional committee subpoenaed Harry S. Truman in 1953, nearly a year after he left office, he made a startling claim: Even though he was no longer president, the Constitution still empowered him to block subpoenas. “If the doctrine of separation of powers and the independence of the presidency is to have any validity at all, it must be equally applicable to a president after his term of office has expired,” Truman wrote to the committee. Congress backed down, establishing a precedent suggesting that former presidents wield lingering powers to keep matters from their administration secret. Now, as Congressional Democrats prepare to move forward with investigations of the Bush administration, they wonder whether that claim may be invoked again.}

^{“The Bush administration overstepped in its exertion of executive privilege, and may very well try to continue to shield information from the American people after it leaves office,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, who sits on two committees, Judiciary and Intelligence, that are examining aspects of Mr. Bush’s policies. Topics of open investigations include the harsh interrogation of detainees, the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, secret legal memorandums from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and the role of the former White House aides Karl Rove and Harriet E. Miers in the firing of federal prosecutors.}

^{Mr. Bush has used his executive powers to block Congressional requests for executive branch documents and testimony from former aides. But investigators hope that the Obama administration will open the filing cabinets and withdraw assertions of executive privilege that Bush officials have invoked to keep from testifying…}