A U.S. “truth commission” should investigate Bush administration policies including the promotion of war in Iraq, detainee treatment and wiretapping without a warrant, an influential senator proposed on Monday.
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, urged a commission as a way to heal what he called sharp political divides under former President George W. Bush and to prevent future abuses.
He compared it to other truth commissions, such as one in South Africa that investigated the apartheid era.
“We need to come to a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past,” Leahy said in a speech at Georgetown University.
“Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened,” the Vermont senator said. “And we do that to make sure it never happens again.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5186JZ20090209?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true
This is a rehash of the previous effort by the Dems to ‘investigate’ GW’s counter-terrorism program:
When a Congressional committee subpoenaed Harry S. Truman in 1953, nearly a year after he left office, he made a startling claim: Even though he was no longer president, the Constitution still empowered him to block subpoenas.
……Congressional Democrats prepare to move forward with investigations of the Bush administration, they wonder whether that claim may be invoked again.
“The Bush administration overstepped in its exertion of executive privilege, and may very well try to continue to shield information from the American people after it leaves office,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, who sits on two committees, Judiciary and Intelligence, that are examining aspects of Mr. Bush’s policies.
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/dems-want-to-investigate-bushs-executive-orders/
Hey Leahy, how about a ‘truth squad’ investigation into the treason, obstruction of justice, and corruption within your own fucking party? You don’t have to go back very far, either. Start with Bubba and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Janet Reno, and Obama. The crimes and corruption engaged in by those five alone should keep your ‘squad’ busy for at least a decade.
Speaking of which:
……In the last couple of years, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee was a bulldog at the Bush administration’s heels. Then-chairman Henry Waxman conducted investigation after investigation, on topics from the Justice Department to global warming. Waxman was particularly fond of probing the Bush’s administration’s alleged politicization of just about every aspect of the federal government.
Now things are different. With a Democrat in the White House and Democrats running Capitol Hill, that old Waxman toughness is a thing of the past. Waxman himself has decamped for a bigger job chairing the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He’s been replaced as chairman by the lower-key Rep. Edolphus Towns, who doesn’t have the reputation of being a ferocious watchdog.
http://www.dcexaminer.com/politics/Who-will-investigate-the-Obama-administration-39457567.html
You Dems are a fucking laugh a minute.