{"id":2933,"date":"2009-02-10T20:50:08","date_gmt":"2009-02-11T01:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2009\/02\/10\/2933\/"},"modified":"2009-02-10T20:55:44","modified_gmt":"2009-02-11T01:55:44","slug":"2933","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2009\/02\/10\/2933\/","title":{"rendered":"pray…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Leahy: Congress Will Do Truth Commission with or without POTUS<\/a><\/strong>
By: emptywheel<\/strong><\/font>
February 10, 2009<\/div>\n

As you may have seen last night, one of the more challenging questions for Obama came from the HuffPo’s Sam Stein<\/a><\/strong>, who asked Obama if he supported a Truth Commission.<\/p>\n

Sam’s still busy with this story, today reporting<\/a><\/strong> that Leahy says Congress will go forward even without the support of Obama. <\/div>\n
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    Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and White House Chief Counsel Greg Craig discussed on Tuesday the Senator’s proposal to set up a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate potential crimes of the Bush administration. "I went over some of the parameters of it and they were well aware at the White House of what I’m talking about," Leahy told the Huffington Post. "And we just agreed to talk further."<\/div>\n
    [snip] <\/div>\n
    Leahy did add an important ripple to the story in the interview with the Huffington Post: Congress will likely proceed with investigations regardless of whether Obama is on board. "Oh yeah," Leahy said when asked if he would go forward without Obama’s endorsement. "I think the Senate and the Congress as whole has an oversight responsibility that has to be carried out here anyway. Now it is much easier with the cooperation of the administration. A lot of things with the subpoenas I issued the past few years, we got a lot of information but a lot of it was held back."<\/div>\n
    [snip]<\/div>\n
    "What I would much rather see is to see us working together," said Leahy. "We have a common interest, both the Congress and the administration to get this thing worked out … In this instance, this is so important that our common interest is to get the truth out."<\/div>\n<\/ul>\n
    And in related news, Russ Feingold has joined the 22 other Members of Congress who have voiced their support for such a Commission. <\/div>\n
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      I applaud Senator Leahy’s leadership in proposing the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission. Getting all the facts out about what happened over the last eight years is a crucial part of restoring the rule of law. As President Obama and Attorney General Holder have said, nobody is above the law. There needs to be accountability for wrongdoing by the Bush Administration, including the illegal warrantless wiretapping and interrogation programs<\/strong>. We cannot simply sweep these assaults on the rule of law under the rug. [my emphasis]<\/div>\n<\/ul>\n
      I’m guessing Russ will not only support this Commission, but he’ll be one of the first reminding AG Holder that "nobody is above the law."<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
      For the last three weeks, I’ve been in awe of the destructive, organized campaign of the Republican Alliance including The Republican Party<\/strong>, Dick Cheney<\/strong>, Rush Limbaugh<\/strong>, and Fox News<\/strong>. While they might argue that such an accusation leaves out any attention to the content of their arguments with Obama’s plan for dealing with the Financial Crisis, it’s obvious that such an argument is only a smoke screen to cover the real focus of their assault. For example: Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh are making the argument that Guantanamo Prison and Torture were deterrents to Terrorists. That is an absurd argument. Even the C.I.A. admits that these policies and the pictures from Abu Ghraib are major recruitment tools for the terrorists. Why would Cheney and Limbaugh say such things? They’re playing the odds. Since the "War on Terror" has been a complete flop, fueling the Terrorists rather than doing anything about them, a future Terrorist attack is likely. Knowing this, Cheney and Rush are positioning themselves to say, "See, I told you so!<\/strong>" Likewise, the economic situation is so bad after years of Republican Rule that nothing can change it quickly. The Republican Alliance knows that things will get increasingly worse. They are positioning themselves to say, "See, I told you so<\/strong>" as things worsen. Since Reagan, the Republicans have dismantled the Financial Regulatory arm of our government in place since F.D.R. and the Great Depression. Now that we are in a position where the only possible solution is to rebuild our regulations of Wall Street, they are positioning themselves to point their finger and say, "See, the government is meddling in the Private Sector<\/strong>" [a "Private Sector" we are bailing out because of its own mismanagement and corruption].<\/p>\n

      What can we do about this campaign?<\/strong><\/font><\/div>\n

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      • \n
        As this post by emptywheel<\/strong><\/font> makes clear, Senator Pat Leahy and Representative John Conyers are planning a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate potential crimes of the Bush administration<\/strong><\/font>. Obama needs to stay out of it either way. Leahy says “don’t turn the page until we have read the page<\/strong>” and he’s completely right about that. The Republican Strategy I’m talking about is best countered by making the kind of government we’ve had under the Republicans extremely clear. <\/div>\n<\/li>\n
      • \n
        We need a similar commission to begin studying the causes of our financial crisis post haste<\/strong><\/em>. The argument that the Republican Campaign is making is ludicrous, but the American people don’t know why. It is the best way to educate Americans about what has happened and chart the long term reform<\/strong><\/font> in our system. Put Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman on it. It will give them a legitimate format to make their arguments and criticisms heard. <\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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        Bipartisanship is not a right, it is a privilege. If the Republicans aren’t going to play, shut them out until they change their tactics. If they don’t change, so be it. <\/div>\n<\/li>\n
      • \n
        Put Obama on television at every opportunity. He’s compelling and worth more in public than behind closed doors. <\/div>\n<\/li>\n
      • \n
        Get us out of Iraq yesterday and put the returning soldiers to work at home rebuilding our National Guard and supervising domestic infrastructure projects. They don’t need to join the ranks of the unemployed. You create jobs by allowing them to stay in the service, working at home. <\/div>\n<\/li>\n
      • \n
        Put Joe Biden on the circuit specifically answering the distortions of Talk Radio and Fox News. He’s good at it and Obama needs to stay away from those people. Their attacks are fundamentally racist. <\/div>\n<\/li>\n
      • \n
        There is nothing "progressive" about Progressives joining in the criticism by saying that Obama is not "progressive enough." He’s all we’ve got right now.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
      • \n
        Pray…<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Leahy: Congress Will Do Truth Commission with or without POTUS By: emptywheel February 10, 2009 As you may have seen last night, one of the more challenging questions for Obama came from the HuffPo’s Sam Stein, who asked Obama if he supported a Truth Commission. Sam’s still busy with this story, today reporting that Leahy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}