This touches on a few wide-ranging topics I guess, but I had to respond in larger view to something in Lisa Lockwood's very valuable diary on the recent "confusion" as to whether Leahy is or is not continuing, and/or in what manner, his support to seek justice. The key part that struck me was:
"Do they really think the only ones interested in justice and the rule of law are some undefined, attention deficient base?
That's almost funny, in a tragic way."
I'll offer my two editorialized cents over the ridge...
Of course Lockwood is right. It is absurd in a tragic-comedic sense that the search/demand for accountability, could be the mere fantasy of a handful of "libruls". But the reality is that GW Bush and Mr. Cheney were elected, twice, by the American people - and the "questionable" methods by which they won in the end only make this point stronger, not less so. What happened in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 were crimes against the very idea of democracy. Crimes that deserved mass outcry, if not violent protest. They were a clear shot across the bow of the very infrastructure of what we claim to believe in, and send our sons and daughters and moms and dads and brothers and sisters to die and kill for.
So unfortunately, it can be noted with little exaggeration that the vast majority of Americans, including the huge numbers who don't even vote, are at best very late arriving to any point of awareness and willingness to be involved and "demand" any accountability.
In essence, it is indeed but a mere "vocal minority", or the "liberal base", in the eyes of Bush/Cheney and friends who really give any damn at all about seeking accountability. They assume that the vast majority want to get the economy back to functionability, or business as usual to use a term, and go back to sleep.
Sadly, the simple fact of their 2004 re-election indicates that they'd be right.
Obama's election is one of those pivotal moments. But it doesn't make and has not made people disappear, or change certain minds or hearts. If anything, it has made some dig in their heels even more against the very notions of true liberal democratic ideals. What they care about, and have all along, is but their own fortune and power. Nothing more, nothing less.
The only hope is the that miniscule percentage who will have been truly changed by this moment in time, will be, well, a little less miniscule - and maybe just enough to have impact.
And I say miniscule, because let's face it, even most kossacks have a view of policy that in overall historic terms would still fall well within a "centrist" milieu, as opposed to truly liberal... because the right wing extremists have moved the dial so far right in the last 45 years that the center moved proportionately in that direction as it must to maintain equilibrium.
Many of the behaviors and activities displayed on dkos by major diarists, and the fact that one of the very principles upon which dkos operates, the "ratings and feedback" with a heavy tendency to as much "self-monitoring" as possible, bears this out overwhelmingly. I mean, it couldn't be a better metaphor for the "small goverment" rant, only in the form of a website. The idea that, as with a large and ever-growing democratic nation, more oversight would be necessary as you go forward in order to maintain the best elements of what made it what it is thus far, is simply reviled.
It's just been so long since America experienced sincere intellectual openness in the public arena that we frankly are not practiced enough at it to overcome the gut reactionary temptation of mob rule. Even though liberal ideology was invented to help move/provoke mankind past that very trait.
But as with dkos, and America in general, I cling to hope that it can and will lead to improvement.
Because, the really interesting hopeful cool thing, is that, to use a version of an old cliche', "the longest journey begins with one step".
As for Obama's take on all this. I think he sees the journey in long-view, with accountability being a portion of it that has to be addressed after the more practical issues. I believe that Obama is not pursuing "accountability" for a very simple strategic reason: if he goes after Bush/Cheney, the subsequent media circus, since the MSM simply cannot help itself, will make Monica Lewinsky-gate look like a blip on the screen. And the crucial battles over healthcare and the future of this place we exist on called earth would be derailed and lost before they ever had a chance to be won. If this is his rationale, he'd be right.
That said, though, he cannot wait forever. The crucial time frame is his first year. He needs to get all the big challenges settled in 2009, or by mid-2010, then go after them.
The possible fear is of course that then he would not want to do it for fear of backlash in the 2010 elections. But hey, there's never a "good" time to drag the nation through the muck of indicting it's former leaders for crimes against humanity... except maybe as a lame-duck second-term "transformational" president maybe? But even then, there's the hopes of the then current Dem presidential candidate...
Bleh.
Just do it, Barry. Wait for your pitch. Wait until the 7th inning. Wait to get the big changes for the nation underway. Wait for whatever you need to.
But don't wait too long.