But from today's Los Angeles Times:
In naming a special prosecutor to investigate the CIA's use of harsh interrogation tactics, the Obama administration has plunged into just the kind of controversy it said it wanted to avoid -- a polarizing, backward-looking fight over issues far removed from the president's top priorities.Also, previously, from Jennifer Rubin, "Torture Prosecutions and Obama’s Radical Political Agenda."
At a time when healthcare and other signature initiatives are in trouble on Capitol Hill and President Obama's approval ratings are slipping, he now faces the prospect of a long, distracting probe into policies of the Bush administration -- policies Obama has already denounced.
And the furor is likely to be all the sharper because it pits the most liberal elements of Obama's base against the most unyielding elements of the Republican right.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs sought Monday to position Obama out of the line of fire.
"The president has said repeatedly that he wants to look forward, not back, and the president agrees with the attorney general that those who acted in good faith and within the scope of legal guidance should not be prosecuted," Gibbs said in a statement. "Ultimately, determinations about whether someone broke the law are made independently by the attorney general."
But keeping the president above the fray may not be easy.
"Unfortunately, the pressure . . . to indict someone will be overwhelming," said Mark Lowenthal, a former senior CIA official. That will produce "two simultaneous unappealing outcomes," he said. "Half the population will think it is a whitewash and the right people weren't indicted. And half the population will think it is a lynch mob.
"If the White House thinks they can control this," Lowenthal said, "they aren't nearly as smart as I think they are."
Cartoon Credit: William Warren at Americans for Limited Government.
3 comments:
Finally, a republican congressman grows a pair and asks the question many of us have been for some time:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0809/King_on_Holder_You_wonder_which_side_theyre_on.html
Clearly, this move by Obama is intended to distract from the fact that the SS Obama is taking on water at an alarming (for some) rate.
If you ask me, the damn thing can't sink fast enough.
-Dave
Here we go, folks; Obama and Holder have decided to go to war on our own intelligence services. Get ready for 9-11 Part II, because it's going to come. The jihadists can read the newspapers and they know that if their agents are caught they're much less likely now to reveal secret information, thus compromising operations, than when George W. Bush was in office. As such, no doubt they're licking their chops with glee, dusting off old plans that had been shelved for years.
The lefties are happy too. They've always seen the United States as the real enemy, and "this terror-jihadist thing" as a fiction invented by the Bush Administration to take away our civil liberties. Not that this is anything new for them. Having observed the left from the late 1970s on, I know how they thought much the same thing about the Soviet-led communist threat. They shows their true colors with the distain they showed for Reagan's attempt to root out communism in Central America. Che tee shirts are still all the rage for this outfit.
Anyone who has read the bible or knows anything about Hitler can see the resemblances! He is a great orater & can convince most people that he is for peace & goodness. The ones who believe him are in serious trouble!! Just don't take that frickin' chip in your wrist or forehead. Please think seriously & READ, READ, READ, so you can make an intelligent decision...not one based on emotions, because he can fool those!!!
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