Obama Divides Nation and Risks the Political Comity

The President under pressure from the left and surrounded by a rising tide of corruption in his party left open the door to imprisoning his political opponents. To do so significantly damages the the already fraying comity that has existed in the United States. We know he cherry picked the intel to make foes look bad and validate his own supporters. This is a mighty bad start to an administration that sold the country on hope and change. Its also clear that Obama in a supreme act of hubris, believes he can control the situation.

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is seeking to substitute Bush administration political appointees for intelligence-agency professionals as targets of public outrage over interrogation techniques used on suspected terrorists.

Obama’s decision to rule out prosecuting those who conducted the interrogations reflects his need to avoid antagonizing the Central Intelligence Agency as the U.S. fights two wars and faces terrorist threats. Still, he risks a bruising political fight with Republicans furious over potential prosecutions of senior Bush administration officials.

“When you get one administration prosecuting its predecessor, you start creating the conditions of a banana republic,” said Philip Heymann, a law professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who served as deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton. “Every Republican in the country would think this was a dangerous attack on the two-party system.”

Prosecuting Republican appointees may destroy any semblance of national security bipartisanship, as well as further expose Obama to opposition-party accusations that he’s jeopardizing the nation’s safety in case of another terrorist attack.

Obama is calculating he can control events by steering a course between those demanding he move against all connected with harsh interrogations and others objecting to any action.

Vetoing Commission

In an example of his approach, he vetoed a proposal to create an independent commission to probe the issue even though there was support for the idea among his advisers, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Instead, Obama last week ordered the release of memos that authorized the tough techniques.

I wonder since he "accidentally" released materials such as the amount of times KSM was waterboarded if Obama has as much control as he thinks. This is clearly about the President distracting people and firming up support in his base. As for his alleged punting of the issue to Eric Holder, its perfect Obama. As President he often calls " For a New Era of Responsibility", but in this issue he made sure to shift as much public focus on other people then on himself. So what is going to happen? Do they rally think ripping this nation apart is worth it? I suspect that many Democrats are terrified of a true investigation as their role in approving and their knowledge of interrogation techniques will be exposed. Imagine Pelosi explaining, yeah I knew about this stuff while under deposition from someone like Mark Levin! Levin himself announced yesterday on the radio that he would provide all the support possible as well represent anyone Obama decides to scapegoat. Imagine that!

So what is likely to happen?

Heymann said the Obama administration is unlikely to pursue criminal charges against the Justice Department lawyers because doing so would likely lead to investigations of senior officials under former President George W. Bush. In addition, accusing the lawyers of aiding and abetting torture would be difficult, he said.

“If they went after them, the government would have to say, ‘This wasn’t your honest legal advice,’” Heymann said. “That doesn’t sound like a very good case.”On April 21, the president said he would leave it to Holder to decide if the authors of the Justice Department memos should be tried. Holder yesterday told reporters he will “follow the evidence wherever it takes us.”Tracy Schmaler, a Justice Department spokeswoman, declined to say whether department lawyers may face criminal charges.

Ethics Review

She said in a statement the agency’s professional ethics office is reviewing whether the legal advice in the memos by Office of Legal Counsel officials was “consistent with the professional standards that apply to department attorneys.”

The OLC can deliver a massive slap to the Bush appointees for Obama and it is the perfect vehicle for the President to accomplish his goals. On the one hand he could tell his base we did punish the "evil" Bush admin, and more importantly he can prevent anything truly damaging to Democrats from being released during a trial process. Of course Obama thinks he can ride this tiger and get away with it, a very dangerous proposition. There is another wildcard here, overseas events are just as likely to intervene that would derail any investigation. As we speak the Taliban are 70 miles from Islamabad, the Russians are a bare 40 minutes from the capital, our enemies are on the march and Obama is going to need a unified country if he intends to stare down our nations enemies. A great summary of Obama and the damage he is doing can be found here.