Obama Would "Immediately Review" Potential Of Crimes In Bush White House

Attytood's Will Bunch has a new interview with Barack Obama:

Tonight I had an opportunity to ask Barack Obama a question that is on the minds of many Americans, yet rarely rises to the surface in the great ruckus of the 2008 presidential race -- and that is whether an Obama administration would seek to prosecute officials of a former Bush administration on the revelations that they greenlighted torture, or for other potential crimes that took place in the White House.

Obama said that as president he would indeed ask his new Attorney General and his deputies to "immediately review the information that's already there" and determine if an inquiry is warranted -- but he also tread carefully on the issue, in line with his reputation for seeking to bridge the partisan divide. He worried that such a probe could be spun as "a partisan witch hunt." However, he said that equation changes if there was willful criminality, because "nobody is above the law."

Read the full transcript of the exchange here.

Comments

[CSDofNM]

This is really economic news.

Obama has announced a full employment program for lawyers today. "It will take millions of lawyers to sort this stuff out. Even then, it will take them years. But a least then, we can pull the Constitution out of the shredder over at the Vice President's office and begin to establish the rule of law" he said forcefully.

[transendentilist]

Good one. St. Obama is getting nervous. His magic is wearing off.
I knew it would, his lofty rhetoric is just not attainable. A person can get away with pie-in-the-sky politics for only so long.

[jeg]

Yeah... then they have to start drinking, and telling hunting stories to get votes.

[Tulka2]

I do feel your contempt, but remind you this is a nation of laws. LAWS. No citizen is above the law. Until we get our laws back under us, we are in free fall. Sorry you hate lawyers. So many right-wingers do, but i'll tell you what, when you need one, you will want a good one. My gratitude goes to the lawyers who will not be intimidated by the pirates who have grabbed power (Gore won). These lawyers, for instance, demand the prisoners in Guantanomo be represented... at great personal risk to their own lives and careers. Bless them.

[Ozarks]

No it won't take millions of lawyers to sort this stuff out. Chaney and the Present Occupant of the White House have left a pretty good trail. Attempted "Retroactive telecom immunity" in violation of Fisa and the 4th Amendment, violating Constitutional Habeas Corpus , violating Geneva Convention on torture will require endless testimony by the Present Occupant of the White House in many judicial and administrative courts. The only millions will be the dollars these two will spend on lawyer fees.

[kevenseven]

You are an asshat for putting a false statement in quotes.

[hugs4u]

gw bush administration needs to be tried and convicted in a court , then hung for war crimes like after world war II and also for the destroying of the constitution of this country.

[ajax2]

This will not sit well with the Clinton/Bush clans. Look for a major assault from Bill.

[ILliberalPedagogue]

This story will play very well to the feculent mouth-breathers that circle this toilet of a forum.

Much like many of the people on here would scoff at the time and tax dollars that were spent on the search for traces of presidential seed deposited on some trollops blue dress, mainstream America doesn't want Bush strung up.

If this story gets any legs in the mainstream media, Independents will be flocking to McCain. Polls show most people have no problem with wire taps for overseas phone conversations or water boarding. It sounds ugly, but you can only see so many folks having their necks cut with dull knives. How can you listen to the sound of a man's primal scream as his wind pipe is cut and blood floods his lungs and then really give a crap if Osama's driver gets his head dunked under water?

[fourex]

ILliberalPedagogue, 'Polls show most people' is an empty right wing construction.

Like polls show that most people don't want to join the Rapture with McCain and Hagee. Well maybe not a poll, but 'some people say'.

[BuckeyeNut]

Thanks for telling it like it really is, An earlier post had it right also when they said this is just pure politics which will cause more stagnation in Washington. Which hunts rarely work and make any chance of political harmony impossible. Obama has his message of change. Time to prove it and cut out the business as usual!

[SupremeIdiot]

Are you bitter and clinging to your gun?

Come up from Mom's basement and I'll give you a hug.

Sounds like you need some human contact for once in your life.

have a nice day :D xxoo SI

[kevenseven]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[HereNow]

There aint anyone flocking to McCain. He is no more Independent than you are.
He is a buffoon when it comes to public policy.
He wasnt even a very good pilot

[globality]

Music to my ears.

We really needed to hear this. To be honest I was worried that working together in Washington would mean turning a blind eye to past administration crimes.

The Senate needs to pass strong anti document destruction law, or other laws specifically targeting the purge that is about to start taking place (if it hasn'r already).

They will probably buy the biggest shredders ever made. The Olie North 5000

[Trinidad707]

The statements he is willing to make means Hillary values her life and her prospects of becoming president, where Obama says silly things that could get him killed as these cretons are still in office ..DUMB

[IndependentTogether]

I don't know, Trinidad707. I'd say your statement isn't ranking so high on the intelligence scale...

[Gem4Obama]

Is it me...or am I seeing an ABSENCE of discussion from the MSM on this subject? I have searched CNN and MSNBC (I don't infect my PC by going to FoxNews)...and there is nothing...nada...zilch on this subject. Could it be that the MSM's complicity with BushCo makes them IGNORE something this big?

It boggles the mind that the MSM has not jumped on yet another (percieved) Obama faux pas!!

This only shows how deep the corporate influence enabled BushCo with its CRIMES AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!

[BlueBoomer]

Matthews is doing a "college tour" tonite with McCain...wonder if he'll bring it up then...

Olbermann is doing a segment with Joe BIDEN (the one that got away) this evening...let's watch and see...

ABC is doing a debate on Wednesday nite...should be interesting (at long last!)...

[Gem4Obama]

Joe Biden was my first choice, because of his experience and foreign policy knowledge. However, the media dismissed him quickly (because he had no money for ads on their stations?)...so I went with Obama. The media treats him like a joke and that pisses me off. Ok so he is a bit loquacious at times but hey...thats joe Biden...Clinton (Bill) is the same way!

[Marioth]

It's not you. It's been a serious dysfunction with American politics since 2000. There is a serious problem when D.C. is free to ignore the large majority of Americans for over two years in polling and a decisive national election over the war and how we got into it.

Obama's grass roots machine is going to be grinding against the broken Federal system in the fall. What he suggests absolutely has to happen or America will never recover.

He also increases the size of the target on his back because this is some SERIOUS shit that could get a person serusly kilt [sic].

War Crimes Feb 09 when indictments cannot be pardoned by W.

Pax,
M.

[JFB]

This is welcome news, and it has been in hopes of this that I have not favored impeachment. I do not want symbolic justice; I want actual criminal justice for these bastards.

[transendentilist]

Why wait until AFTER the elections? I smell a broken promise in the making.

[SmootyBooty]

Are you insane? By what authority does he "commence investigations" while he's a candidate? You trolls are scarily stupid...

[Gem4Obama]

How can anything be done now with BUSH POLITICAL OPERATIVES in EVERY branch of the EXECUTIVE, JUDICIAL AND LEGISLATIVE BRANCHES??? Duh...they'd quash this in a heartbeat right now. Think about it...NOW??? NOT!

[BlueBoomer]

Exactly.

[bobo209]

ERIK THE MAN IS A WAR CRIMINAL BELONGS IN A JAIL..JAIL TO THE CHIEF

[gomonkeygo]

What I most like about this Obama comment is that it shows him willing to make possibly controversial statements that Hillary would never dare make - and at a moment when he should be cringing still from the whole "elitist" baloney! Hit him and he comes back stronger! Way to go, O!

[EyeWantOneNation]

I liked the way he immediately started addressing McCain, like "Hillary...Hillary who ??"

Class act....and she gets SO irritated when he ignores her...Lovin' it !!!!

[sugarmoes]

like his coming out publicly against the war and hillary cowing to bully georgie and voting for it... because it was politically expedient.

i'm sick and tired of "politically expedient".

[transendentilist]

He IS stil cringing from the "bitter," remark. Why is Obama saying this now? Why hasn't he said this all along??? He is saying this, so that those gullible enough to believe him, will be so over-joyed, that they'll forget all about the "bitter," fiasco.
And why wait until AFTER the election??

[speakingtruth2power]

Right now, the MSM is gushing over the Pope's arrrival,

Just what we need now, another fascist in our country!

[EyeWantOneNation]

I think Bill Maher's show last Friday was outrageously great...and HuffPo even ran a few stories about his show...

His "New Rules" and rant at the end said it all for me !!!!

Glad his writers are back up to par !!!!

[only1Demvoter]

Eye / Nation : Agreed. Bill's opening monologue was spot on, as was his ' New Rules ' .


-ralph

[huffnpuffn]

Random slur. Nothing to see here. Move along.

[peacekitten]

you're not too familiar with Pope Rat are you?

with apologies to those sweet natured little rodents....

[Tejano1]

only obama can bring the bushco criminals to face the music. shillary can't. she's in bed with them and their filthy war.

[4peace]

I hate to be the harbinger of bad news - but - it ain't gonna happen. NO ONE is going to bring any of those criminals to face the music. Its just not going to ever happen. Ever. They will all go away with a glorious retirement package that we the little people could only dream of. The rest of their years will be spent in the lap of luxury - all somehow gotten at taxpayer expense. Nope. It. Ain't. Going. To. Happen. Ever. Not going to happen.

[Tulka2]

On the other hand, 4peace, hope you enjoyed the news a before Christmas when Don Rumsfield had to be spirited out of France because a judge there issued an arrest warrant for war crimes.

[Ozarks]

Don't bet on it . The Present Occupant of the White House will not be able to pardon himself and Darth Chaney.

[Nochnoi]

I hope Senator Obama whacks them all over the head with the Constitution.... a document the Bush administration has so publicly scorned, berated, mocked and abused.....

Let them laugh as the Rule of Law set forth in our most sacred documents come crashing down on their corrupt heads.... they will not be laughing for long....

[CuriousPerson]

Part 3:

This man is Rev. Jeremiah Wright , the retiring pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, who has been in the news for comments he made over the last three decades.

Since these comments became public we have heard criticisms, condemnations, denouncements and rejections of his comments and him.

We've seen on television, in a seemingly endless loop, sound bites of a select few of Rev. Wright's many sermons.

Some of the Wright's comments are inexcusable and inappropriate and should be condemned, but in calling him "unpatriotic," let us not forget that this is a man who gave up six of the most productive years of his life to serve his country.

How many of Wright's detractors, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly to name but a few, volunteered for service, and did so under the often tumultuous circumstances of a newly integrated armed forces and a society in the midst of a civil rights struggle? Not many.

While words do count, so do actions.

Let us not forget that, for whatever Rev. Wright may have said over the last 30 years, he has demonstrated his patriotism.

[EyeWantOneNation]

Quite an incredible post, if I do say so myself !!!!

While most of the country heard tidbits of comments on an endless sound byte, no one bothered to ask, yet wonder, who the MAN was. Jumping to conclusions; taking words out of context; guilty of all imaginable things without the benefit of background knowledge...ah yes...America !!!!

Obama's speech on race was the excellent response to why this "preacher-man" might have some bitterness with his country.....

OOPS...there's the "bitter" word again !!!!

Thanx for your post !!!!

[2smart4dems]

Did you notice in his speech on race he spoke more respectfully of the 8,000,000 black men in prison than he did the citizens of Pennsylvania? When referring to the prisoners he said"then there are all these young black men languishing away in prison", as if they were just innocent people who had been wrongly convicted. Come on now, 8,000,000? It's a good thing people have guns to cling to. I'm bitter for all the money spent to house these young men (some call them criminals)and the money spent to support thier fatherless children.

[ILliberalPedagogue]

"The US created the AIDS virus to kill people of color"

That statement ALONE easily erases six years in the Corps. I currently i am Active Duty 21 Years. He is just another bigot hiding under the cross. Sharpton, Jackson....peas in a pod.

[Gem4Obama]

You would look a bit more credible if you also named the right wing bigot clergy like the now deceased fat guy...and Pat Robertson and the rest of those "KKKristian Reich Wing" bigotted clergy who McCain has embraced.

But nooooo...all you can name are those caricatures of clergymen (and I am black) that the MSM has decided are African American Leaders...NOT! Jackson and Sharpton are so 80s and 90s Pedagogue. I cannot believe you typed that. The MSM has tried to define who OUR (black folk like me) leaders are since the 50's. I refuse to acknowledge their selections. Black leaders today are the young Black men and women in Undergrad and Grad schools with a purpose and a goal to work for community and COUNTRY. Its not about the separtist politics of the 70s-90s. Its about being a part of HUMANITY not a special interest group. Thats the Obama appeal. He is not a black nor white leader. He embraces all Americans and represents ALL Americans. So please take your old school rhetoric and bury it in your backyard and catch up with the politics of today. Thank you sir...and thank you for your service..

[ORrider]

Dear CuriousPerson,
You neglected to give credit to the authors of this article that was printed in the April 3, 2008 issue of the Chicago Tribune. The two gentlemen who penned this piece are; Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss. Many thanks to them for such an enlighting work.

[dontshootme]

As much as I disagree with Bush I have to seriously question Obama on this one.

Clearly he is trying to appeal to all the Bush haters in the Democratic Party, but if Obama is really interested in appealing to the center independents (who will ultimately give him/or not give him the victory), he should rethink this.

Since 2004 Obama has tried to establish himself as a third-way candidate who will rescue America from partisan politics. There probably is no better way to throw that whole image into the trash can than to say, "I'm going to investigate the other party's adminstration for criminal behavior."

I think most Americans, regardless of their low opinion of Bush, want to relive the crimes of this administration, through yet another never ending investigation that will only result in partisan wrangling, a lot of posturing and no real results.

If you become our President, Barack, this is the time to use your political capital to accomplish the real change you've been discussing, rather than the politics as usual we've experienced these past twenty years.

[alambique]

"rather than the politics as usual we've experienced these past twenty years."

I think upholding the Constitution would be a welcome change. All the craziness needs to be repealed. 3 equal branches of government again, please.

[NotBeatenYet]

Let us not forget that we are "a nation of laws" (the principal justification for impeaching Bill Clinton).

[ILliberalPedagogue]

I concur. (mostly).

[BBGG]

With our economy, infrastructure, schools (kids gunning down kids in our schools and universities), price of gas soaring, threatening to put us all under, other countries buying our steel plants and businesses, Barack's worrying about fighting and spending millions of our taxpayers dollars for another bullshit inquisition!!!???? Wow, what a pity. He needs to take one of those civil service exams where you are given various problems and asked to prioritize these tasks in order to pass the requirements for a government job. He would not pass!