Under an Obama administration, will the Bush crime family be held accountable?

[RiverStone]

Of all the representatives on The Hill, I think Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) is a role model for demanding that justice be served against the crimes of the Bush regime.

Obama has tons of house cleaning to do once he gets to Pennsylvania Ave. May the winds be at his back...

There will be a massive and continued effort to hide or manipulate the truth from ever being brought to light. I'm sure many hard drives are being wiped clean as we speak. Yet with people like Robert Wexler waiting for a green light to proceed, who knows how many metric tons of dirt will be found when Shrub's lock-stepping minions have moved out?

May 29, 2008

Wexler: McClellan Must Testify Under Oath Before the House Judiciary Committee

Today Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) called for former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan to appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify under oath regarding the devastating revelations made in his new book on the Bush Administration’s deliberate efforts to mislead the American people into the Iraq War.

“The admissions made by Scott McClellan in his new book are earth-shattering and allege facts to establish that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby – and possibly Vice President Cheney - conspired to obstruct justice by lying about their role in the Plame Wilson matter and that the Bush Administration deliberately lied to the American people in order to take us to war in Iraq. Scott McClellan must now appear before the House Judiciary Committee under oath to tell Congress and the American people how President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and White House officials deliberately orchestrated a massive propaganda campaign to sell the war in Iraq to the American people.”

“The allegations by this former top White House aide – that Rove and Libby deliberately coordinated their stories in order to obstruct justice in the Plame case, that the President deliberately disregarded contradictory evidence related to Iraq, should outrage every American and Congress must respond by initiating immediate aggressive oversight starting with an appearance by McClellan before the House Judiciary Committee. Any continued obstruction by this Administration to prevent White House officials from appearing before Congress cannot be tolerated by this Congress in the face of these shocking revelations.”

Congressman Wexler has led a nationwide campaign in favor of holding impeachment hearings for Vice-President Dick Cheney. Congressman Wexler is Chairman of the Europe Subcommittee and a senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Judiciary Committee.

http://wexler.house.gov/apps/list/speech/fl19_wexler/morenews/052908_mcclellanfrontpage.shtml

[Amy6627]

1. Thom Hartmann said that Obama said that this would be part of

his to do list for the first 100 days in office.

[Vincardog]

3. He had better; if we want to return to the company of civilized countries

[ThomWV]

13. If I hear Obama say it himself it will guarantee him my vote and I will work hard to get others too

Otherwise as far as I'm concerned he is simply the Democratic Candidate and I will vote for him, but not a lot more than that other that we will contribute a bit to the campaign.

[hootinholler]

20. Yep! That's the number one issue for me. n/t

[babylonsister]

33. Bush’s laws will be scrutinized if I become president, Obama says

http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/05/28/bushs-laws-will-be-scrutinized-if-i-become-president-obama-says/


May 28th, 2008
Bush’s laws will be scrutinized if I become president, Obama says
Post a comment (152)

DENVER - Maybe it’s his background teaching constitutional law.

If elected president, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama said one of the first things he wants to do is ensure the constitutionality of all the laws and executive orders passed while Republican President George W. Bush has been in office.

Those that don’t pass muster will be overturned, he said.

During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama — a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School — was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.

“I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution,” said Obama

Other goals for his first 100 days: work out a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq; make progress on alternative energy plans and launch legislation to reform the health care system.

[MrCoffee]

15. Obama is going to impeach an ex-president?

I'm confused...what did Obama say he's going to do, as President, to the ex-Pretzeldent?

[Oleladylib]

2. I think it would tie up billions of money and time that would be ill spent

with the legalease that could development...Let history write the disasterous resume for the criminal and his cronies.

[Vincardog]

5. I believe it would be money well spend. Let the Hague write the end story to theses criminals

Let the inbreed idiot face responsibility for the first time in his miserable over privileged life.
Let the spoiled lazy frat rat who could never even do his own homework do his own time.

[sammythecat]

10. I wish I could have your attitude.

I'm not being sarcastic either. I think it would be healthier for me. The idea that these bastards, who have done such incredible damage, will get away with everything just eats at me. We'll need the press to bring pressure for justice, but that ain't gonna happen. The press was just as guilty as the administration for bringing about all the death and destruction. What is it, more than a trillion dollars totally thrown away and, at the very least, the VERY LEAST, a hundred thousand dead and maimed. I don't know how that can be ignored, but it will.

I have a feeling nothing at all will happen. We'll "have to get over it", we'll "have to move on", we "won't want to bog ourselves down with past events". Our government and our press is corrupt and they are literally going to get away with murder.

I'm against the death penalty, but these guys deserve to spend the rest of their lives in prison. They are callous, white collar mass murderers. Nothing less. History giving them a disastrous resume just doesn't do it for me. I need a good bit more than that.

[magellan]

21. I think yours is a normal reaction

...maybe only because I share it. The crimes involved, along with the scale of the fallout (much of which we'll be feeling for decades to come, in many varied and ugly ways), make Capone's operation look like a kiddie shoplifting ring. It's stomach-turning that anyone could think there's anything more important than bringing these fiends to justice.

If the Dems ignore the crimes and let the perpetrators walk off into the sunset, what does that say about them? Nothing I'd be willing to vote for. And I've told Pelosi and Reid as much.

But then, I'm just one of the left-wing lunatic fringe who has nothing to gain from perpetual war and the wholesale gutting of our country.

[ThomWV]

14. Billions?

As I recall hearing the entrie investigation and impeachment against Clinton cost less than $100M, about $40M of that gone into a fruitless investigation.

[ladjf]

22. I totally disagree with your opinion. Terrible crimes against

humanity have been committed by BushCo. It would be a travesty of justice to allow that to go unpunished. Also, it would not cost billions. But, if it did, it would be worth it to America and
the rest of the world.

[RiverStone]

24. Sadly, the Pat Tillman lie shows just how far the admin goes to cover up...

...TRUTH!

I agree ladjf, at some point in time someone has to place for the public record, and future history classes, that there were some that refused to let the crimes of the Bush regime fade out with their departure from power.

What's the saying --- "Those that don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it."

Well, to learn from it we need to show for the record that we tried to hold the criminals accountable. Kudos to folks like Wexler, Kucinich, and Russ Fiengold for trying!!!

[ladjf]

27. As an aside, may I say how glad I am that the primaries are over

and DU can return to a forum of exchanging political opinions with others who care about America
and life on Earth.

[eallen]

25. The DoJ prosecutes crimes from smuggling to drugs. War crimes aren't worth it?

If the DoJ can prosecute drug cases, it sure as hell can make some money and time to prosecute war crimes.

:hippie:

[annabanana]

31. Not billions.. and the cost to our country to "let it slide" would be

incalculable. The neutering of Congress for all time is the price we would pay. The "Unitary Executive" has to be buried with the traces kicked over for all time.

[TheWatcher]

38. Why is is that you cannot understand that without holding these people accountable, there can never

be any real change in this country, and no real progress toward where and what we want to be AS a country?

If they walk away Scott Free and unpunished, how can you live with that?

You can't heal or fix what has happened here by wishing it away and trying to forget it ever happened. Why can people not realize it is not this simple?

What has happened here is too severe and too critical to just wave our hands across our brows and say, "Whew! That's a relief! I'm Glad THAT'S Over!"

And if they do, they will only crawl out of the woodwork like cockroaches a few years from now and finish what they started.

As for the answer to the question posed in the OP, I hate to say it, but No.

In the end, it is going to fall to We The People to right all of this. I have my doubts that Congress will do the job for us.

[gullwing300]

4. There isn't much he could do, proactively. It's up to Congress.

Remains to be seen what that will look like in 8 months.

[ThomWV]

16. Not really - he's got the Attorney General and the crimes have already been committed

All they have to do is investigate, indict, and prosecute. The juries and prison system will take care of the rest.

[gullwing300]

23. Well, Patrick Fitzgerald was riding a white horse for a while...until he fell on his butt.

I'm not optimistic.

[ladjf]

28. Yes. I think Fitzgerald was a Republican shill all along. (Just my

opinion)

[annabanana]

34. an uninformed opinion

please see this thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3389803

[ladjf]

36. Having gotten "informed" by reading your reference,

I still believe that basically Fitzgerald was a "friend" to the Bush administration.

[annabanana]

32. Wrong. Justice was obstructed and the facts never came out

in court. He is free to come to Congress now, and he is ready to. May I refer you to this thread for the latest:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3389803

[blm]

29. A president CAN COOPERATE with the needs of the investigations and access documents

that are required instead of stonewalling those requests or denying them.

Would we be living through the last 15 years of the GOP dominated nightmare that exists if we had a cooperative Dem president in office when IranContra and BCCI matters were allowed to go unresolved?


This latest report about Rumsfeld should wake some up:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3398113

[postulater]

6. If international law has been broken

they should be turned over to the appropriate jurisdiction. It is our responsibility to the world community to meet our commitments to our treaties.

[MrCoffee]

7. Color me cynical

I don't have enough faith in ANY politician to just freely give power over to another branch of government. These things have an institutional life of their own beyond any one individual. Congress (yes, the same Congress Senator Obama was part of and equally complicit in the Unitary Executive bullshit) needs to step up and tell President Obama to back the hell off.

It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.

[historian]

8. nothing will happen

anyone who tries anything will probably have hired assassins at their homes in a matter of minutes or the irs on their backs forever. Nixon never went to jail, neither did agnew. bush daddy never paid for his role in the iran contra business and reagan never had to explain the death squads he arranged in el salvador. Oh well.....

[sammythecat]

11. I fear you are right. I'm not holding my breath for justice.

It's sickening.

[kenny blankenship]

9. I'd like to think so, but what I believe is contrary to my hope

If the economy had crashed a year sooner -and the crisis which will soon engulf this nation were already upon us, rather than just impending- then the next elected President (assuming the 08 elections happened as scheduled) would be taking office in an atmosphere of revolution. We're not quite there.

America's license to print money at whim has been revoked, and the basics that we require to rebuild prosperity for the people has been exported, boxed up and sold off. Worse yet, the people who did this to us also created a regime of international law under which recreating or recovering America's broad based prosperity will be impossible, in fact it would actually be "illegal." Unlike the longstanding international laws against wars of aggression, this economic law is a body of international law which they observe and will insist be enforced. If the crisis were in full swing already, the American people would demand that the criminals who eventually launched the Iraq War and converted our nation's Treasury into their private casino years earlier be exposed, arrested and given the full Nuremburg.

Instead as it turned out, the criminal class was able to borrow money against the credit of the people of the United States jussst long enough to precipitate the crisis at the very end of Bushler's 2nd term. We're not quite to the point where the incoming President would HAVE TO promise to round up the war criminals and financial criminals in a general shake out and reorder things so that they & their kind can never come back to infest & usurp the govt, spread war, and plunder the wealth of unborn generations. Not having promised a "revolution" in the election, there will be no appetite to risk disapproval in pursuing one, no matter how necessary it will eventually appear as America's crisis accelerates. Therefore the remedies and punishments applied by the Democratic successor of Bushler, the Illegitimate will be shallow, and the very damage resulting from the 30 year party of corruption and warfare state spending will be cited as a reason to go lightly in prosecuting the abuses of the old regime, even as it deepens.

[LaurenG]

12. Wouldn't it be more helpful to wait until bush is out of office so he can't pardon all the

bad people? I hope they are all brought up on charges.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

17. All I know FOR SURE is, under Republican administration, they will thrive.

I KNOW THAT FOR SURE!!!!!

Under an Obama OR ANY DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION with a cooperating Congress, ANY thing is possible. ANY THING IS POSSIBLE.

Under another republican regime, the only possibility is a perpetuation of the crimes we've witnessed.

You choose.

I've chosen.

Apparently,...you're still confused.

[Rosemary2205]

18. NO

Because the American public isn't in the street with pitchforks.

[leftofthedial]

19. no chance

they are part of the ruling elite

they just let us pretend to be in charge of our own country once in awhile, but they are not subject to our facade of "justice."

[TheWatcher]

41. Sadly , I have to agree with you.

But the first part of your post is what most simply want to dismiss and never discuss, and claim doesn't exist.

So there you go.

We pay the Price for the Matrix we choose to live in.

We value comfortable paradigm over real freedom.

[samsingh]

26. i hope so

[annabanana]

30. I want Patrick Fitzgerald in front of Conyers, PRONTO!

He's indicated he's free to talk about the US Atty firings now..I hope Congress is paying attention.

[babylonsister]

35. Bush’s laws will be scrutinized if I become president, Obama says

http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/05/28/bushs-laws-will-be-scrutinized-if-i-become-president-obama-says/


May 28th, 2008
Bush’s laws will be scrutinized if I become president, Obama says


DENVER - Maybe it’s his background teaching constitutional law.

If elected president, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama said one of the first things he wants to do is ensure the constitutionality of all the laws and executive orders passed while Republican President George W. Bush has been in office.

Those that don’t pass muster will be overturned, he said.

During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama — a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School — was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.

“I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution,” said Obama

Other goals for his first 100 days: work out a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq; make progress on alternative energy plans and launch legislation to reform the health care system.

[happydreams]

37. No. And for that reason alone all of this election euphoria is

just the same old bullshit.



Bush may go down from an avalanche of legal and political action from multiple sources which would restrict the fascist slime from doing a Night of the Longknives. But then again Bush might seize power and blunt if not reverse this process. Reagan and Bush one slimed through all of the crooked shit they did, and they did plenty, then went on to be iconized and their minions/henchmen not only pardoned, but return to the political arena.

[Mezzo]

39. I don't think he will. I honestly think BO will want to move passed it

just being honest. He gave a quote that seemed like it would get blamed on stupidity.

[earth mom]

40. No-ALL of Congress has blood on their hands. Obama would do NOTHING about * & Co. nt