I have read with some interest a few posts and comments on KOS. First with Hunter's take on the Brennan appointment and then Juan's comments on the same. It is not so much their take on the issue that I wish to comment on, by and large I agree with them, appointing Brennan is a bad idea, but some if not most of the comments are going after Obama. Now is not the time for this.
It seems to me that wanting Obama to publically announce his intention to hold Bushies accountable for their illegal activities through agressive prosecution is just nonsense. It is nonsense not because the prosectutions should not happen, but because, if it were Obama's intention to so, to publically proclaim such would be tantamount to political suicide (more on this below the fold).
In the end, our energies should be, or more probably should HAVE been, focused on getting Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid removed from their leadership posts in the house and senate.
Before I address the Pelosi and Reid situation I want to finish my thoughts on why public proclamation of intent to prosectue would be political suicide for Obama:
Obama may well intend to pursue prosecutions, he may not intend to, I do not know how he will proceed on this issue at this point. What I do know is that if it his intention to aggressively pursue prosecutions, particularly in the areas of torture and wiretapping, it would create a completely hostile Republican party that still has the power to block every nomination put forward by Obama.
Given the nature of the challenges facing his administration, taking any political step that would result in slowing down setting up his administration would be foolish, particularly when all he can really do at this point would be pure sabre rattling. It is my hope and belief, given some of Obama's prior comments, that it is indeed his intent to investigate and prosecute any criminal activity undertaken by the Bush Administration.
Continual public proclomations of this intent will not serve him well at this point. Patience is not a virtue we are accustomed to in this society much anymore, but on this front, in terms of Obama's actions on this front, I urge patience at this point. After 4 to 6 months in office, with most of his major appointments through the Senate, if I hear nothing from Obama on even an investigation I will be back on this sight urging others to rise up and force the issue if possible.
Right now we need to spend our energies on new congressional democratic leadership, although honestly it is probably to late to have any affect.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are complicit in much of the illegal activity. Another reason Obama has to hold any intention to pursue illegal activity close to the vest by the way. We know they knew about the two principle criminal activities in most people's eyes, the torture program and the warrentless wiretapping. Probably the most egregious act on their part was the refusal to even conduct the most basic oversight of the Bush Administration.
Reid forced no hearings by Joe Lieberman, Pelosi abdicated her constitutional RESPONSIBILITIES by taking impeachment off the table. All of the political establishments hand wringing about diviseness and so forth is nothing more than a smoke screen to hide behind. They do not want to expose how flawed our electoral systems are, as is evident in the case of the Gore ABDICATION of the Presidency, nor do they want to truly expose their complicity in the illegal activity they were clearly aware of and did nothing to stop. Pelosi pursuing an impeachment of Bush would have meant exposing herself to prosecution. Any investigations by the relevant Senatorial committees would have exposed Reid as well.
This fear lead them to abdicate their duty to the constitution. This should lead to their removal from leadership positions by our elected demcratic congressional caucus. This is where we can bring pressure to bear right now. The leadership elections will be early next week. Email your congress person today to seek new leadership in congress. I use Congress.org to correspond with my elected officials, I recommend you do the same.
In the end, I feel putting pressure on Obama NOW to announce his intentions to pursue prosecutions is simply counterproductive, there may be a time to do so, but now, before he is actually in office is not it. That being said, NOW is the time to move against Reid and Pelosi.