Last night I listened with interest to comments by Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary committe, regarding the necessity to uncover the misdeeds of the Bush administration through some kind of thorough investigation and/or prosecution. Everyone knows that Bush and Cheney, for starters, were putting themselves above the law. Although Bush didn’t come out and say it as Nixon did back in the 70’s during Watergate, it was clear he had the opinion that “If the President does it, it must be legal.” For anyone who might not be old enough, yet happen upon this site, the nation went through a very tumultuous time in making it clear that Mr. Nixon was not correct on that assumption. The astonishing thing, to me, isn’t that another Republican President tried to take up the torch, so to speak, for Nixon’s point of view – it is how much more severe the violations were by Bush/Cheney and how much more damaging the results will be if they are left to get away with their lawbreaking.

As I’ve mentioned in past entries on this “blog” American law evolves through precedence. What that means, and I think people like Leahy “get it,” is that if Bush is allowed to get away with his actions, they are much more likely to be “replayed” down the road, and it will be much more difficult to stop an executive branch that gets out of control. Of course, part of the problem in this instance has been a recalcitrant congress which apparently didn’t have the stomach to take on Dick Cheney (I’m convinced he was the architect of much of the illegal activity – intentionally pushing the boundaries of the executive branch – apparently with the perpetual Republican majority in mind, ughhh!!!) and the thugs who were giving the “doctored” legal advice that they will have to, hopefully, stand on in a court of law. Their theory that if you can find someone like John Yoo, a man who will justify just about anything with the idea that the President has unlimited power (remember, the only thing he labled as “possibly” being torture was burying someone alive for a few minutes, then digging them up before they suffocated to death – unbelievable as it seems) and get them to write “memos” justifying clearly illegal activities as “legal” then it is so. I’ve heard many legal experts calling that theory what is should be called – absurd!

If Bush and Cheney get away with their actions then here are some things we can look forward to as a nation. Let’s start with the outing of Valerie Plame (Wilson) who was a covert CIA agent. Ironically, her network of spies was working on the weapons of mass destruction issue in Iraq and Iran when Dick Cheney disclosed her identity. As soon as the Republican “water carriers” discovered that it was Dick Cheney who authorized this leak – which endangered who knows how many undercover people in her “network” – they started to claim that She was no more than a secretary at the CIA. Of course, their argument never explained why the CIA was so enraged when this happened, and immediately filed a complaint with the Justice Department. OUTING A CIA AGENT IS TREASON!!! Can you imagine what it will be like at the CIA if they believe agents could potentially be used as “political footballs?” THIS IS A SERIOUS CRIME! Dick Cheney got away with it because of the willingness of Scooter Libby to take the fall for him. And I’m sure that Scooter Libby will go down in the Republican “Hall of Fame” for not “snitching” – as my 6th grade students call it – on Mr. Cheney. But, the reality is that Cheney, Rove, and probably President Bush are “dirty” here – and potentially committed a treasonous act – AT THE VERY LEAST THIS ACTION SHOULD BE THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATED!

Then how about the fact the government, as I’m writing this, is listening into our phone conversations (well, what they’re actually doing is data mining – which means they’re collecting all the info and running it through sophisticated computer programs which reside on huge super-computers that can handle unbelievable amounts of data – to find out……. well, the truth is – whatever they want to find out – THEY DECIDE!), intercepting our emails, probably logging “bloggers” and putting them into data bases, tracking credit card transactions, and who knows what else. The reality is that once they step over the line of privacy that is guaranteed by the 4th amendment to the constitution – it’s going to be hard to get them to step back. As I’ve written before, it’s a lot easier for the government to install all the listening devices and software than it will be to get it removed. Especially in the secret environment that existed under Bush. Now, I believe this is an area that could fall into the “slippery slope” category for President Obama. I can virtually guarantee that this practice is still going on under his administration. I’ve heard rumors that this is “power” that Obama doesn’t want to “give up.” However, in my view, this is power he doesn’t have. HE HAS TO GIVE IT UP – AND THE SOONER THE BETTER! This illegal wiretapping represents so much what Americans – both Republicans and Democrats – should be standing shoulder to shoulder against. Our constitution is a sacred document and it MUST be treated as such. Not only should Bush/Cheney be investigated for these felony violations of the law – but I believe Obama needs to be very careful that he doesn’t fall into the trap of letting this go on. Should he do that – where do we draw the line? When does Obama become guilty of the same thing? I believe he not only should get behind the investigations – but he should IMMEDIATELY do what he promised me when I wrote complaining about his support of the FISA legislation during the campaign – he promised to “fix” the legislation once in office. I can’t imagine that he will allow this pervasive wiretapping to continue – but if he should choose to do so, then I will support him being investigated – probably in tune with a bunch of Republicans who will find this practice just as repulsive as I do, once they learn that they might be the target.

And then there’s the torture issue. I really believe that President Obama, the Senate, the House, the Justice department – are all REQUIRED to fully investigate everything that went on in this area. Both Cheney and Bush admitted authorizing “enhanced interrogation” as they left office. I’m not sure what their strategy was – maybe to pollute the jury pool – but I don’t see how the aforementioned bodies can justify not proceeding in the face of public admissions of guilt. It will be very bad, and an indication of how far this nation has fallen, if the investigation of the War Crimes has to be carried out by the French or the Germans or some other nation who take this matter to the Hague. Bush and Cheney clearly and willfully violated the Geneva Conventions against torture which we as a nation were responsible for setting up. They also captured recklessly hundreds of “enemy combatants” on the word of tribal leaders in Afganistan and Pakistan – while paying these informants up to $20,000 for each “terrorist” – resulting in the forced captivity without charge and torture of hundreds of innocent victims of Bush’s “war on terror.” Should Bush and Cheney just be allowed to walk away from this horrible travesty because they were the top executives of this nation? Should the fact they were the President and Vice President allow them to ruin the lives of several hundred innocent people – just because they were the “deciders?”

I can tell you, nothing has ruined the reputation of the United States more than this willingness to torture people, to take them captive on a whim and hold them with no rights whatsoever – these guys couldn’t even see the charges against them, they couldn’t defend themselves, it was unbelievable to me – Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and the rendition prisons (wherever they might be) will go down in the history of this great nation as one of the all time black marks. I mean, we’ve got slavery, the destruction of the Native American culture, the Japanese internment, the Communist inquests of Senator McCarthy, racism, and now this – and this will rate right up there – because Bush and Cheney were violating – blatantly – one of the most basic principles of this nation, and doing so arrogantly. For Dick Cheney to suggest that torture is what has kept this nation “safe” for the past 7 years is absurd. It is one of the main things which will keep this nation unsafe for who knows how many years into the future. In fact, I believe how Barrack Obama deals with this will in a large way determine how severe the damage is. The way to mitigate the damage from these choices of Bush/Cheney is to hold them and Donald Rumsfeld accountable in a court of law. Prosecuting Bush/Cheney/Rumsfelf for torture will go a long way in letting the rest of the world know that the United States is “back.”