Did Cheney Just Hand Over To Dems A Weapon Of Mass Destruction?
No-Drama Obama has been cool to the idea of either "truth commission" or prominent Congressional investigations into Bush Administration torture, manufactured intelligence, and political marionette-ism that subverted the Justice Department. These anti-rule-of-law intrigues were Cheney's, and the Oval Office has wished that Patrick Leahy's Judicial Committee would allow them to fade into history as the President's busy enough trying to save the world economy. Nothing doing, says Leahy; if we don't examine our recent history how will we safeguard against repeating it? You could argue it's the last thing Obama needs. But perversely, Leahy may have gained a new strategic ally in the trash-talking Cheney himself.
Barack Obama is a nice guy, but he also survived politics in one of the wiliest environments, bare-knuckles Chicago. He raised eyebrows recently by saying he was no chump, and he may not appreciate Cheney's un-statesmanlike early emergence from retirement and foray into anti-Obama fear-mongering. Read over a couple of times again that line from Gibbs: "I guess Rush Limbaugh was busy, so they trotted out the next most popular member of the Republican cabal."
Cabal?!
Ouch! Is that brushback, or is Obama about to step aside and let Leahy have his inquiries? One must imagine, they'd be riveting! Time's Bobby Ghosh has been all over this, http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1883383,00.html, with good stuff and good links. Especially if no commission is even created and it's merely (televised?) Congressional hearings, theoretically Obama isn't even involved, of course. It's the Hill, legislative branch and not executive, so he can deny everything (plus, Leahy's so mad, Obama might not be able to stop him anyway). Cheney is used to dramatically Overreaching, not only with policies but even on his version of reality, as we know. (Many say his strident claims of successes through waterboarding are embellished or wholly ficititious.) But the Democratic majority is already making Cheney's drive-by regime of bald deceit a much tougher exercise. Homeland Security Committee Chairwoman Jane Harman placidly states, "He's wrong on the facts" and she's not the only pretty face now burying into the scheming curmudgeon's ugly world. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1883383,00.html They're in no rush, either, and they're only getting started.
