We have been subject to months of nonsense from the Bush administration re: Telecom immunity. The way the argument goes:
- We need to pass the FISA bill or the terrorist will kill us all.
- The only hold up to the passing of the bill is the objection to retroactive immunity for the telecoms.
- Bush will veto any bill that doesn't include immunity (see number one above).
Putting aside the very obvious contradiction in the Republicans' position (well obvious to anybody except our media and the Hoyer-Rahm-Lieberman Bush Dog wing that is), a question that I haven't seen raised is this:
Why hasn't Bush used his power of the pardon to remove the telecoms from any legal repercussions?
What would be the remifications of such an action?
Would doing so free up the telecos to testify, without fear of legal action, about the actions of the Administration?
Why hasn't this line been drawn in the sand by the Democrats?
Why haven't Democrats talked about the hang-up and put forward a "clean bill" that includes all the necessary fixes and tells the president to pardon the companies?
What is going on here? What type of political kabuki dance are the Congress and President engaged in?
Does it cost the Republicans politically to force Bush to use the power of the pardon?
Remember, you can pardon people who haven't been found guilty (Nixon), so there is nothing really holding him back from this...
Why is Bush so afraid to use his power of pardon on this one issue.
Something tells me that if the Democrats were to pursue that last question, they could easily find his Achilles heel on this one issue.