"too distracting"

[solarbird]

Michael Isikoff of Newsweek reports that Mr. Obama declared a "truth commission" on torture "too distracting" in a closed-door meeting with civil liberties groups, the same day that the Senate voted 94-6 to deny funding to close Gitmo, with Harry Reid calling prison the same as "release." Mr. Isikoff says Mr. Obama got quite "cranky" when Mr. Obama's policies were described - as the facts would indicate - as a continuance of Mr. Bush's policies. I'm pretty fuckin' cranky about it too. Not surprised, not after the FISA fiasco in the Senate; just cranky.

On a related topic, Glenn Greenwald has another column up about the permanent "war president" and political press cheerleading for the ever-more-powerful executive.

eta: Patrick Appel quotes an excerpt from today's speech, where Chief Executive Obama dismisses efforts to investigate crimes of the previous Chief Executive as backwards-looking and partisan "finger-pointing." He then compares and contrasts it with similar dismissals of investigations by Mr. Cheney in recent weeks, declaring criminal investigations into violations of both law and treaty as mere matters of policy. See the despicable American political class, united as one. Isn't post-partisanship just wonderful?

Comments

[kodi]

I think the worst thing is not how cranky it makes me, but the fact that The Narrative is "people only started getting cranky in the past year or so."

[redbeardsghost.livejournal.com]

Kind of makes you think there should have been a bunch of democrats included in that book, Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them), by that one guy who wants to be a senator, or wait, that might have jeopardized his funding.

[epawtows.livejournal.com]

And, of course, supporters of the previous prez are yelling and stamping their feet about how mean the current prez is being to his predecessor...making it clear things aren't being swept under the rug fast *enough*.

[maellenkleth]

I suppose that the compare and contrast opportunity here is the Oliphant commission of inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber bribe scandal: as note: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2009/05/19/live-blog-brian-mulroney-testifies-at-the-oliphant-commission-week-two.aspx

This morning, Norman Spector (Mulroney's former chief of staff and PR flack) was on CBC's morning show, essentially disowning his old boss. Claims, among other things, that if he had known what Brian (Mulroney) and Karlheinz (Schreiber) had really been up to at those breakfast meetings, he'd have stopped working for Brian ages ago.

Anyway, the sight of a commission of inquiry (with full legal powers) digging into the past dirty deeds of a former Prime Minister while his party now holds power is quite a refreshing contrast to Mr Obama's despicable conduct. I should amend that: predictably despicable. As you note, the political class does tend to close ranks and protect its own down on your side of the Smith & Wesson Line :(