Stalwart Clinton impeachment champion Peggy Noonan had this to say over the weekend about the potential for investigations into illegal acts committed by the Bush administration :
Some things in life need to be mysterious. Sometimes you need to just keep walking. ... It's hard for me to look at a great nation issuing these documents and sending them out to the world and thinking, oh, much good will come of that.
Notwithstanding Noonan's protestations to the contrary, a deluge of GOP leaders have just come out with a full-throated call to open up wide-ranging investigations into the former administration's abuses of power.
... See all the quotes from these GOP leaders after the jump. Please read the whole post ...
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[-- Originally posted on my blog, Library Grape. --]
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The first in a series of Republican defections came from Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC):
We need to look at to make sure exactly what happened is known to the public and to deter any future president from doing like behavior, if it was wrong. In that regard, if we can do it in a bipartisan fashion, I think that's what we should do. Every American benefits when you can control X abuse of power. If this was an abuse of power, then we need to know about it.
Republican Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott had this to say:
This is outrageous. We should at least take a look at what happened and ask ourselves, should we take some action to try to prevent abuses that do occur?
House Government Reform Committee Chair Dan Burton (R-IN) is outraged:
Congress has an obligation to find out if this was appropriate. [My] panel will obtain subpoenas if necessary.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani can't contain his umbrage:
It needs to be investigated. I think it is worthy of investigation. The facts cry out for an answer to be given... Until we get the answers to this question, [the Bush torture program] is put in some jeopardy of being misunderstood by the public.
Here's Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY):
It's important to remember that [the President] is not personally exempt from federal laws that prohibit the corrupt actions of all government officials.
Finally, Senator Joe Lieberman (?-CT) piled on:
I think the important question is, is there something more Congress can do to try to express through ourselves the will of the American people about a procedure for [approving torture]. [These practices] should be examined.
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Amazing how much the debate can shift in just a few days, isn't it?
Oh, hold on a sec, I'm getting a call.
"Hi, I just wrote a blog post, what's up? Oh, you read it? Yeah, those quotes are amazing right?
What? They said them when!?
Crap, I gotta call you back..."
... Sorry folks, it turns out that the seemingly right-minded GOP quotes I posted above were made during the Republicans' rabid campaign to launch investigations into President Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich back in 2001.
My bad.
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Update: Thanks everyone for all the rec's!! This is only my second time on the rec list. I really appreciate it. If you're ever in the neighborhood, please drop by my blog sometime. You can also follow me on Twitter.
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