As you may, or may not know, an investigation/commission has been my preference as well, Steve. I've been hopeful that it would come and I'm glad to hear this.

The Financial Times published an interview with Larry Summers. Summers says this:

“The president made two things clear to us early on,” recalls Summers, who answers my questions in full, idea-packed paragraphs, rocking gently back and forth in his seat as he gets into the flow of an argument. “He would do what he had to to fix the banking system, to get the economy out of the rut in which he was inheriting it. But he had run for president to do long-run, fundamental things, like fixing healthcare, like having real energy policy, like reforming education. And we weren’t going to be distracted from those things.”

Obama’s most important political calculation has been this decision to press ahead on all these fronts at once – and the success or failure of his administration will rest largely on whether that was the right call.

This is exactly what I thought was going on and why I have never given up hope.

Sounds good, but put me in the I'll believe it when I see it camp. I've been burned one too many times on this administration putting up fronts like they'll do something when they have no intentions of doing anything of the sort. See AIG bonus scandal, executive compensation restrictions, etc. etc. etc.

I'm betting on the basis of no evidence at all that is is "good cop-bad cop" strategizing, and that Holder and Obama discussed this over their drinks or choice (or maybe by blackberry). It is a very old Community Organizer trick used by Saul Alinsky and Martin Luther King.

At the Nuremberg trials, we held individual Germans responsible. My Lai was covered up until Time published the photographs, then 25 men were exonerated and only Calley was convicted, and he served only a short sentence.

As they say, history is written by the victors. I would say the torture investigation will end up about the same. There was plenty of screeming about My Lai, but the attitude that prevailed was "its us against them."

back when Obama stepped on Holder's toes by ruling out such investigations I speculated, on my blog, that this might be the outcome he was hoping for. after all -- nothing gets the head of any department more kerfuffled than treading on his turf -- which Obama most certainly did.

and I agree with markg8 that timing will be everything.
as has been pointed out repeatedly, the O has to get his agenda passed before mid 2010. after that, may they pull out ALL the stops!

Don't count your chickens until they're hatched.

Obama and his organization has a pattern of placating liberals by implying they will do the right thing which relieves the pressure on them to do so. Then, when push comes to shove, they go the other way and Obama issues a stern statement about protecting national security that sounds like Bush redux---remember how the whole FISA flip flop went down? Same scenario. As with any other politician who sees his job more as a game than a sacred obligation (which is nearly every single one of them), don't believe what they say unless what they do is in synch or matches their words. Up to now, every action of Obama's has been in opposition to investigation of any kind.

I hope he ends up doing the right thing, but I'll believe it when I see it and until then I suggest everyone who wants to see a restoration of the rule of law, the Constitution and respect for civil liberties restored to the Federal government keep up the pressure. Without that they wouldn't even be teasing people via Newsweek, but if they think they have gotten the left to back off even a little they will proceed on their rightward course without missing a beat.