I think all of this would be more palatable if it was only soon after 9/11 – the heat of the moment. But it continued in spite of a lot of resistance. The word "perseveration" comes to mind. It’s something demented people do – get stuck on something and keep at it ad nauseum. I feel the same way about their Iraq War. It was a bad idea to start with. But they kept at it as if it had become a cause unto itself disconnected from any previous meaning.The unwarranted Domestic Surveillance fit the same scenario – persisting no matter what objections were raised.
Senate Republican Saxby Chambliss, a member of the Intelligence and Armed Services committees, today said in the effort to embarrass former President Bush, the Obama administration "overstepped their bounds" in releasing interrogation memos last week.
"It seems that this administration looks for every opportunity they can to seek to embarrass the previous administration,” Chambliss said at a news conference. “And I think this is one time they really overstepped their bounds."
Citing the fact that there hasn’t been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, Chambliss added, "Whatever the previous administration did, under the guise of the legal opinions that the Justice Department issued, it’s worked. And the American people have a great appreciation for that."
He added, "There are some things that when you operate in the cloak-and-dagger world of the intelligence community that need to remain in the intelligence community"…
I wrote this long & rambling piece and I lost the web site. I want the people responsible for torture in the Bush Administration to pay the price for their crimes.God bless America.
And regarding the fact that we haven’t been bombed again since 9/11, so bush’s efforts to keep us safe were justified:
And my house has not been attacked by tigers either, ever since I put up the Tibetan wind chimes outside my front door.
Thomson Reuters.Clinton says Cheney not a “reliable source” (the Sec’y of State when asked about former VP sanctimonious opining re: declassification of documents that would show how much benefit was derived from torturing prisoners).
What I would like to know:
Walter Mondale
G.H.W. Bush
The dyslexic guy from Indiana
Al Gore
….for that matter, can we develop a list of former Vice Presidents, or even former Presidents of the United States who feel as though their own personal rights under Article I trump the basic fact that, as former chiefs of the apparatus, they have a higher moral obligation to keep their goddamn yaps shut while the country goes about its business? I know, I know, there was Teddy and a few others who crossed this line. In “modern” times, we have come to expect at least minimal decorum from former office holders… even W recognizes that the President of the United States is “owed” his silence on matters of state unless he is specifically requested to weigh in. Can someone shut Dick Cheney up?? Please!