So why wasn’t “Gorelick’s Wall” repealed on January 20, 2001 or the first business day soon after?
Did Gorelick possess some magical power that rendered Dubya unable to repeal this policy once he became President?
Somehow Dubya did manage to quickly do Senator No Borders Spencer Abraham a favor and reverse Clinton’s policy that allowed profiling of Arabs at our airports. As weak as that was it was too un-PC for President Islam Is A Religion of Peace.
Don’t forget Bush wasn’t in office on the 20th because of Florida ballots being contested by the left. Good old Gore and the DNC fought that election for months.
Because it was secret. You had to know to look for it in classified files. It was not there only to protect the Clintons, it did have a legit rationale as long as you think terrorism is a crime rather than an act of war. It wouldn’t do to contaminate the ability to try a criminal. It does not do to give invaders Miranda rights. 911 showed which perspective was operative - not that you’d know it by the way “liberals” still act.
The unfortunate reality is that once policies become the “new normal”, woven into how things are done, they are hard to see and harder to root out. It takes time for shortcomings to become obvious and often requires a problem to focus enough energy to change them. I fault Bush and his group for failing to understand that an active effort to purge Clinton era damage was required urgently.
Obama has probably erected a thousand Gorelick Wall equivalents across all divisions of government. They are probably unknown to all but a few insiders, just like Gorelick’s actions before the 9-11 debacle. The permanent bureaucracy is heavily stocked with Obama and Hillary supporters who will do their best to hang on and preserve Obama’s legacy of ruin.
When Trump takes office, he’ll have his hands full just trying to get the economy and foreign affairs on track. He should select someone to head a network of search and destroy teams within all cabinet departments to ID disastrous policies and personnel, and undo them. Some will require legislation. Every single one will have a constituency, and the news media will bewail the threat to starving children, the return to Jim Crow, etc. But let’s hope the usual inertia will not allow these things to set up the next 9-11.