I've been away from KOS for a couple of weeks due to a dead computer but I am back now to find the everyone all 'atwitter with how their candidates are doing in Iowa and NH. I suppose its good to focus on the future but have we forgotten we have to endure a little more than a year with criminals in charge in Washington?
With the passing of time it seems more and more likely the Congress is going to abrogate its impeachment responsibility in order to focus on the 2008 election. After the Vietnam War (Tonkin Gulf Resolution) and some of the abuses of the Nixon administration, the Congress did take steps to keep some of these abuses from re-occurring. Now it seems everyone is focused on how their particular candidate for President is doing and I fear we are going to do nothing to redress the abuses that have occurred over the last 7 years. Have we learned nothing?
At the very least we need a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission".
The best that can be said of this Administration is some things it's done have been stupid and ill-advised -- most everything else has been criminal. The Constitution and the careful system of checks and balances has been trashed. Also, think of all the careers of those who have tried to speak the truth: Gens. Shinseki, Taguba, Zinni, Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson, Jessyln Radack, Sibel Edmonds, JAG Officers who defended Padilla and Guantanamo prisoners, Dr. James Hansen(NASA). These are a few I can remember, but there are probably dozens, if not hundreds more, that this Administration, more than any other I can remember, has tried to gag, suppress, silence, attack and discredit for just trying to do their jobs.
Just because these guys have just one year to go before the American people can finally begin to redress the evils of the present regime, are we going to merely focus on the future and hope these transgressions were personal aberrations never likely to be repeated by future thugs? I know it is in the nature of progressives to be optimistic but we should not forget the great power of precedent.
There are probably those potentially in our future (both liberal and conservative) who may be even more evil and sinister than Cheney-Bush. If our political leaders cannot brings themselves to do their duties regarding impeachment, something should be done to identify, memorialize , and hopefully redress those failings of law or the Constitution that allowed Bush-Cheney to come to and retain power for eight years.
Three things in my opinion need to occur. First, a non-partisan(as much as possible) commission needs to uncover and enumerate all the violations of law , Constitution and fairness that have occurred. The names of a few whistle-blowers are listed above but I expect for every one known there are probably a dozen or so others who "got the message" and kept quiet. Given the secrecy of the Cheney-Bush bunch there are probably numerous mis-deeds that have yet to come to light. (How long did it take for the bed-side debacle with AG Ashcroft to come to light?)
The second action needs to be a convocation of Constitutional scholars and perhaps some renowned elder statesmen who should consider the Constitutional implications of administration actions over the last two terms.
Lastly, the Congress needs to change Congressional rules, pass laws and perhaps Constitutional amendments to hopefully prevent a re-occurrence a government like we have just had.