House Democratic Majority Leader has posted this video highlighting the fiscal abuses of the past eight years. Politico linked to it in its story “Gone but not Forgotten, Dems After Bush”. Paul Krugman has written an op-ed piece advocating that the Obama Administration hold people to account for misdeeds. From the Krugman piece:
I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power.
Let’s be clear what we’re talking about here. It’s not just torture and illegal wiretapping, whose perpetrators claim, however implausibly, that they were patriots acting to defend the nation’s security. The fact is that the Bush administration’s abuses extended from environmental policy to voting rights. And most of the abuses involved using the power of government to reward political friends and punish political enemies.
Krugman represents a strong strain of thought in the Democratic Party, but that thought is not shared by President-elect Barack Obama, who is calling on folks to be looking forward, and not back. From Krugman:
Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”
Is the President on the right track here, and will Congressional Democrats go along with the idea of “looking forward”? There is a lot of pent up frustration over some of the most egregious of the Bush Administration practices, and it will be a real test of Obama’s political skill to stop multiple investigations from convening. Will Democrats chase Bush into Texas? Should they?
Bill Manzi.com 
I’m surprised that the law and order crowd haven’t posted on this … so I guess I’ll add two cents worth …
To me, the question is between “should they” and “will they”. Should they? Yes. I think the fact that we did not go after Nixon for Watergate (pardoned by Ford, for what he thought were honorable reasons), or Reagan (for Iran-Contra), has only emboldened the next generation. The notion that no one, including the President, is above the law lies right now in tatters. We are at our core a nation of laws, and that core is rotten. If you want to restore what’s wrong with this nation, it starts there.
Now, will they? They won’t. These are not normal times. The financial crisis is real, and growing, and the stimulus applied up to now hasn’t worked. Joblessness, which has been undercounted for years, is now in double digits and will grow before it shrinks. Manufacturing jobs are leaving. 2009 will be a very, very rough year. After eight years of being disassembled, the Justice Department will spend at least the next two years being reassembled, hopefully with a purge of Bush ideologues and filled with people who understand and respect the rule of law. And don’t forget Democrats, Independents, and moderate Republicans would have to find a spine and other body parts that they haven’t used in some time.
Left open is whether or not the International Criminal Court will seek an indictment for war crimes. Many legal opinions suggest that the Iraq war is an illegal war, and when you add torture (now freely admitted by members of the administration), there is little doubt that the world’s largest superpower has been acting outside international law to which we are signatories.
I would like to see the indictment, not for partisan reasons, but to restore the principles this country was founded on. If we do not, we risk losing the freedom and democracy which we avow to love, and the slide to totalitarianism will continue. Or, as Sinclair Lewis put it:
“When Fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
If you’re politically inclined, drop by your local library or Amazon and pick up a copy of
“It Can’t Happen Here”, written in 1935. You may find some uncomfortable parallels to the world of 2009.
Ok, maybe three cents worth. One cent overdrawn.
-FM
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It is a powerful three cents worth. I tend to agree that there will be more bluster than bite from Congress as we attend to the problems that this administration has left behind. There can be no question that the inaction against presidential wrongdoing has left little incentive for presidents to be aware of the lawful limits they must operate under.
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