Frank Rich: Obama Can't Turn The Page On Bush

New York Times:

TO paraphrase Al Pacino in "Godfather III," just when we thought we were out, the Bush mob keeps pulling us back in. And will keep doing so. No matter how hard President Obama tries to turn the page on the previous administration, he can't. Until there is true transparency and true accountability, revelations of that unresolved eight-year nightmare will keep raining down drip by drip, disrupting the new administration's high ambitions.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[zanzig]

If anyone is interested in seeing the excellent documentary that SBS in Australia made, just go to their website. It was on a program called Dateline, in February 2006. Shattering stuff.

[milkman]

Mr Rich has written a good truthful article. Bush screwed up and the democrats investigate. This could be the time to declare victory and end this investigation. It reminds me of after 1974 when the democrats won large majorities and began investigating Nixon and the CIA after Watergate. The liberal wing of the democrats drew some blood and felt very powerful. Jimmy Carter was elected with a big majority in both houses. His CIA was decimated by the democrats and he governed from the middle and pissed off Teddy Kennedy. We ended up with Reagan and 30 years of Iranian terrorism. I hope the democrats in congress remember some of this history. Was the revenge of the 70's worth it? I think not. If Afghanistan and the economy tumble it could come back to haunt them like Reagan and Iran haunt us today.

[MaryT63]

Pres. Obama will do the right thing when the time is right. So far what do we see: 1) repubs defending torture drip by drip, 2) repubs trying to blame Pelosi or any democrat for torture approval drip by drip, 3) repubs rebelling against all of his social intiatives to include health care drip by drip, etc. The president is a strategist, he will not show all his cards at once. He is setting this stage up as a basketball court where all his team have to be in place and letting the opposition show all their cards. He is letting the corporate media in their quest to stay in favor with repubs keep these stories alive - drip, drip, drip. Sit by and watch the masters at play.
Good article, Mr Rich. The president will not let these criminal acts go unchallenged, timing is everything.

[jmpurser]

So, we'll get around to that Justice thing when it's politically convenient.

That's one of the sadder speculations I've heard.

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

^5, it's sad isn't. the limits some will go to justify the delay of justice

[ObamAtomic]

When an investigation has being rushed to appease someone or party? Never!

[diamonded]

MaryT63 your comment is spot-on and what a wonderful assessment of where we are today. I love your basketball court analogy, I feel like your having as much fun watching all of this as I am. What's amazing to me is that as folks calm down and start looking at things as he does, slowly, measured, thoughtful, balanced, honest, with the nations interest at the heart of the matter, nothing seems beyond sorting out. This is getting as good as the last eight years were bad. PTL

http://bebopvideos.blogspot.com/2008/05/parking.html

[Okieborn]

When Frank Rich Speaks !!!
I listen, a very honest and intelligent person !!!!

[Decipherer]

Agree with him or not, he is a writer of consequence whose words cannot be brushed aside.

[Anonani]

President Obama is VERY busy trying to make sure that I keep my job, not lose my home, that my bank doesn't go under, and end the wars. I am struggling to find fault with his reticence to confirm the source of the stink in the backyard.

I have very mixed feelings about it until I realize the risk of doing this is that we don't know exactly how many bodies are buried back there. We had better have a plan for what to do with the information that is uncovered. Who is going to jail and how long will they stay? If the ringleaders don't go to jail for this, what is the point?

[jmpurser]

Those are all arguments FOR releasing the photos. If President Obama is "too busy" for justice then he's got the wrong job.

[Anonani]

I don't trust any truth finders who are wasting so much energy on Nancy Pelosi and are able to control the direction of this event by changing the conversation to her.

[Marcospinelli]

Anonani, do you think Obama is a one-man band? Do you think he's running from room to room in the White House, stirring all the pots himself, writing legislation, calling each member of Congress, counting all the money as he doles it out to the banks, etc.?

I want you to go to the White House web site and look at what Obama does. If you watched TV you saw a sample of it. He talks. He talks for a living. He gives speeches, he shakes hands, he is told by staff what happened when the people who are writing legislation and negotiating for policies met. He welcomes dignitaries, poses for pictures, and then hands them off to the aides who are assigned to deal with that issue. He's really not that busy.

The US government is a team effort, not a one-man-show. That one man, however, is the face on the team effort. It's all about marketing and branding. The minute that you said that "President Obama is VERY busy trying to make sure", their work was done. They have you believing in his brand. You bought a product, instead of hiring a public servant.

[Anonani]

I unequivocally and unapologetically believe in his brand. He is not a token and not one to be toted out for the dog and pony show. THAT was GWB! If you are monitoring the assessments of both his detractors and his supporters closely enough you should know that. Mr. Obama is a methodical and pragmatic man. When and if he sees that there is no choice but to start digging up the bodies of the previous administration, it will be well thought out.

If this thing is done, it must be well thought out. What is the exit plan? You see there is much more to consider than just satisfying the thirst for vengeance. What happens once we have the information, a verbal reprimand, jail, execution..what? Justice will not be served by incarcerating the ones who executed the orders....nothing less than getting the architects serves the public good.

[Marcospinelli]

Obama himself has said that there's very little he's going to do about the economy. He sees his job more as a matter of Soother-in-Chief, to calm the nation's nerves and stall for time, while the crooks make their getaway. He's down to the last $100 billion of the TARP monies, and the dollar is about to crash. When that happens, he doesn't want to be blamed by d u m b people that it crashed because he was going after Bush.

I think that's the reason for his "Look forward" rhetoric.

[blimie]

Turn the page and Move forward are euphamisms for trying to sweep the torture issue under the rug. He is probably trying to protect Decocrats who knew what was going on and still gave Bush all the tools he needed to carry it out. Let's air the dirty laundry and then we can move forward.

[Decipherer]

Nothing is being "swept under the rug, "blimey," so relax. Barack Obama is putting the ball squarely in Congress's court, which is where it should be.

Not sure what a "Deocrat" is, but the truth will out. Congress must investigate and if indictments and prosecutions flow from it, then let's get to it.

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

We have to look forward and not look back, looking back hurts us. That has to be the most stupid argument i ever heard. I think we have to just accept that Obama isn't going to do anything regarding the former administration and just live with it. sorry but all of us who thought Obama was on the side of justice were fooled. wiretaps, fisa, rendition, military commissions, leaving iraq, escalating the war in afghanistan, not releasing the torture abuse photos and so on, i think you get the picture. Obama says one thing and does another isn't it quite obvious by now.The best we can hope for is he don't invade any more countries.

[Decipherer]

Mr. Chairman or whoever you are, surely you understand that if we don't know where we are or where we've been, we cannot determine where we need to go.

You understand that, right?

It does our precious nation no harm to sort this out, assign blame, and prosecute the offenders, as we surely will because we are the United States of America. We presumably lead the world because we believe and understand the rule of law, meaning we are a nation of laws, not men.

Again, you understand that, right?

If other countries can handle it, why can't we?

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

I'm on yourside, the first sentence was sarcasm of what some people believe, i'm sure you would have guessed that by the end of my comment

[rich misty]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yoo

On December 1, 2005, Yoo appeared in a debate in Chicago with University of Notre Dame professor Doug Cassel. During the debate Cassel asked Yoo, "If the president deems that he's got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person's child, there is no law that can stop him?", to which Yoo replied "No treaty." Cassel followed up with "Also no law by Congress -- that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo...", to which Yoo replied "I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that."

http://washingtonindependent.com/15946/mccain-camp-buses-in-4000-kids-for-ohio-rally

http://www.armchairsubversive.org/

We know exactly what they are hiding: homoerotic torture, pedo-philia, and torture kiddie porn.

[zanzig]

Yes, a look at all the photos displays nothing so much as a sexual sadism. Who are these people who you elected?

[lyleholstein]

http://www.pubrecord.org/torture/906-exclusive-detailed-descriptions-of-prisoner-abuse-photos-obama-is-withholding.html

EXCLUSIVE: Documents Describe Prisoner Abuse Photos Obama is Withholding

U.S. Army soldiers in Afghanistan took dozens of pictures of their colleagues pointing assault rifles and pistols at the heads and backs of hooded and bound detainees and another photograph showed two male soldiers and one female soldier pointing a broom to one detainee “as if I was sticking the end of a broom stick into [his] rectum,” according to the female soldier’s account as told to an Army criminal investigator.

I found the documents that describes many of the photographs that were set for release at the end of the month on the website of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU has been trying to gain access to the photographs for nearly six years. The ACLU obtained the files describing the pictures in 2005 as part of the organization’s wide-ranging Freedom of information Act lawsuit against the Bush administration seeking documents related to the treatment of “war on terror” prisoners in U.S. custody.

[plaidsportcoat]

If Pentagon can lie about this, CIA can lie about their briefings - written by "memory" since there was not recording allowed. He said, she said? I'll take Nancy Pelosi's word every time.

[Bernique]

Yes, Mr. Rich, it's time for truth, long overdue. For the truth about the previous administration we cannot "look forward", but "delve backwards". That's how the police do it when they suspect wrong-doing. And we know there were major "wrong doings"!!

[PhilipTaylor]

Chainy (sic) will not let this go away - EVER!

Release all the files including his favorites!

Only FULL Investigation will make Chainy happy!

He needs his day in court so he can prove his case under oath!

[Emlyn]

He doesn't want a day in court - he wants weeks of complaining and making comments and showing off.

[harriscrl3]

They left him an OCEAN OF CR AP that he cant seem to climb out of without getting covered in it. Its going to take time this is what he meant when he said change is not going to come easy.

I want to know where are the democrats why are they out there CRITICIZING the President when you have Cheney blasting the airwaves CRITICIZING Obama and then you have democrats come out to you guessed it CRITICIZE Obama.

Democrats are I diots thats why republicans will return in 2010. Mark my words

Carol

[jmpurser]

Because some Democrats, maybe even most, have integrity and they insist that their leaders show the same.

If that repulses the majority of the nation then once again America will get the government it deserves and we'll face further calamities.

[HMDMSR]

Unemployment will continue to grow well into 2010. With a weak jobs picture, public immiseration, and a politically naive citizenry, a return of the Republicans, as an act of desperation, is not out of the picture.

[Decipherer]

OK, professor, what do you mean by "immiseration?"

As for your bleak prediction for the next 18 months, roughly leading up to the 2010 mid-term election, I think that the unemployment rate will remain high, but stable and out of double-digits, credit will loosen, and overall economic activity will improve by a modest 3% or so GDP growth. Much of this activity will be the result of the stimulus measures and so forth. Not great, but not a collapse, either.

I think it would take some kind of disaster of the kind espoused by Dick Cheeney to cause the Democrats to lose control of the Congress, given the fact that there is complete disarray in the GOP, worse by far than in 1965.

Take heart, professor -- things are poised for improvement whether you like it or not. Not bad after not even four months in office.

[RealistDem]

I would say history have proven the republicans and their policies are a disaster for America. Heres George Ws greatest hits with a republican congress for most of it: worst terrorist attack on US soil, 3,000 dead, greatest economic collapse since the great depression, a war started under false pretenses, torture, domestic wiretapping without a warrant, Katrina disaster over 1,000 dead Americans, outing a CIA agent, 4, 000 dead GIs in Iraq a 100,000 dead Iraqis, huge debt, shall I go on? I think America wokeup in 2006 and 2008 and said no more.

[Decipherer]

We could go on and on, but you pretty much covered it, and thanks.

Anybody wanting to blame someone else for the disaster of the last eight years needs to keep what you've written in mind.

[Emlyn]

I hope those filthy Reps never return and certainly not in 2012. They've done nothing but hurt this country and if people vote for them again, they are the fools.

[teutonica]

Most of Obama's actions indicates he agrees with Bush's policies.This could be a good strategy. He needs 51% for re-election. He automatically has the 13% aa vote. So all he has to do is get 43% of the remaining population. By not veering way off to the left, that should be a pice of cake.

[stop7997]

If he continues the policies of the Bush administration, why would I want him to be re-elected? I'm not so in love with Barack Obama, the man, that I would vote for him at any cost. I actually happen to believe there are greater principles involved.

[Hopeington]

And how is the GOP going to uphold and protect your greater principals?

[KarenT]

He is not in agreement with Bu*sh's policies and his approval ratings is still close to 70%. Your post is idi*otic.

[drbillybob]

13% of Americans are alcoholics ?

[Decipherer]

Could be higher than that, not sure though.

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

automatically? i doubt he automatically have african american votes. i think african americans are of diverse political opinion as with any other race of people and don't just blindly follow politicans even if they happen to be black.

[wedgie]

None of us can turn the page on Bush. Any more than we can turn the page on the Viet Nam war. The damage and destruction will last for two or three generations.

**

[jmpurser]

True dat. Bush is going to be a generational wound.

[DASChicago]

Ditto, wedgie and jmpurser;
Like deep, deep Ice Pick wound...we're left to heal from the Inside Out.