Legal Commentary

Friday Morning Open Thread

By Big Tent Democrat

Glenn Greenwald writes a very good, nuanced piece on what was good and not so good from the Obama Administration yesterday on the torture issue. I also liked Digby's statement:

All of these cases were brought about by public and political pressure. It occurs to me that this is the only way it can happen in our broken political system --- that a president never willingly investigates itself, of course, but also never wants to investigate its predecessor either (the Democrats usually for fear of starting an endless vendetta, the Republicans usually for fear of setting a precedent.) They must be made to do it.

With respect to the Bush torture regime, it's obviously very difficult for the administration to take on the intelligence community unless there is a large public constituency demanding action. It's risky on all the levels mentioned above but also risks alienating a very important bureaucracy with a lot of very special power. I recognize that it's not easy, especially for a Democrat, although I think it's so important to the future security of the nation that I would have hoped the president would use some of his political capital to prove that the United States is a country of laws not men.

Speaking for me only. This is an Open Thread.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 17, 2009 (boomark / email).