Posted on 04/14/2008 7:58:36 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Obama said that as president he would indeed ask his new Attorney General and his deputies to "immediately review the information that's already there" and determine if an inquiry is warranted -- but he also tread carefully on the issue, in line with his reputation for seeking to bridge the partisan divide. He worried that such a probe could be spun as "a partisan witch hunt."
However, he said that equation changes if there was willful criminality, because "nobody is above the law."
The question was inspired by a recent report by ABC News, confirmed by the Associated Press, that high-level officials including Vice President Dick Cheney and former Cabinet secretaries Colin Powell, John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld, among others, met in the White House and discussed the use of waterboarding and other torture techniques on terrorism suspects.
Here's his answer, in its entirety:
What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that's already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can't prejudge that because we don't have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated.
You're also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve.
So this is an area where I would want to exercise judgment -- I would want to find out directly from my Attorney General -- having pursued, having looked at what's out there right now -- are there possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And I think it's important-- one of the things we've got to figure out in our political culture generally is distinguishing betyween really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity.
You know, I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I've said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for exceptional circumstances. Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law -- and I think that's roughly how I would look at it.
The bottom line is that: Obama sent a clear signal that -- unlike impeachment, which he's ruled out and which now seems a practical impossibility -- he is at the least open to the possibility of investigating potential high crimes in the Bush White House. To many, the information that waterboarding -- which the United States has considered torture and a violation of law in the past -- was openly planned out in the seat of American government is evidence enough to at least start asking some tough questions in January 2009.
While it's conditioned with enough "If's" and "Maybe's" to drive a truck through, the fact that Obama is pandering to the torches and pitchforks Left is freakin' scary...
I hope conservatives who plan to stay home or vote third party in November will keep this in mind.
What about the Clinton crimes? I thought that Obama wanted to take it to the Clintons at his darndest but somehow he is still, afterall, just an elitist Democrat.
So, Obama wants to unify the country by probing his predecessor who was elected twice?
Let ‘em knock themselves out. Most post-administration investigations are correctly viewed by 90% of the population for what they are...witch hunts and sour grape efforts by children just a little too giddy over their new power toys.
This type of political witchhunt is exactly what Bush didn't do when he took office. To start one now is the kiss of death for any administration, black, white, yellow or purple.
Barry is blind and tone deaf when it comes to politics....
Please Dear God let this leftie loon Osama/Obama be the Dem nominee!
I don’t hear it commented on much, but am I the only one who has the impression that just about all Democrats want to do is form commissions and investigations? It’s a constant drumbeat with them—off to get those corrupt Republicans...
It’s been a pretty effective smear tactic they’ve used against us, and I can’t recall much retaliation on our part at all.
They do this in Mexico. Each incoming adminstration tries to trash the previous one in court.
No matter how crrupt Democrats are, no matter how many crimes they get convicted of, No matter how much cash they find in thier freezers, no matter how much misery thier policies bring to thier followers, it’s always the fault of those “Evil Republicans”.
Darn right! Keep it bipartisan.
Let’s have a review of Clinton’s Chinagate treason.
And the source of his sense of superiority is the same source that all liberals have: They are more moral than the rest of us.
Correction...
Clintons’ — plural — since Hillary was into treason, high crimes and misdeamoners as much as Bill was — maybe more since she has all that “Whitehouse experience!”
Crap like this is the only reason why I’m voting McCain. Because Obama is a BS spewing commie loving FOOL that could absolutely destroy this nation.
The Democrats have been obsessed with this kind of thing ever since Watergate succeeded so brilliantly.
Also, it has always been a favorite Communist ploy.
Show trials.
This country better decide not to or to second guess decisions made during a crisis or national emergency otherwise it will create a culture of indecision. Remember reading about how some Chinese dynasties fell because the emperor was erratic. He would order his generals to embark on a campaign that was flawed. His generals will provide their opinion of the operation and its potential for failure and the emperor threatens their lives if they do not carry out the war. Fast foward, the war was a diseaster as the generals predicted. The emperor instead of taking responsibility would lash out at his generals for the failure. When told that they warned him of the problem and that he threatened their lives if they did not follow the imperial edict, the emperor would respond - “if you knew the my decision was flawed, why did you obey my command.” Therefore the generals were damned if they did not and damned if they did. So future generals dare not make any decisions and provided half ass opinions to the emperor out of fear of being caught in a no win blame game. The democrats and the liberals in this country are playing this dangerous game of second guessing officials who are forced to make hard decisions during a life and death national crisis.
Watch him sink further in the polls. The liberals might as well just skip this election.
That's a lie. The Clintons are above the law.
“my Justice dept., my Attorney General”.
Reminds me of Billy’s innauguration in 93 when the military fighters flew over in formation. Ole Hill was overheard saying, “those are ours, now”.
Maybe all the White House keyboards will be missing the “H”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.