Does the oath "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States" apply only to Democratic presidents? It appears that way. The last Republican president to be held accountable for his illegal actions was Richard Nixon. That was back in the days when the Republican party stood for accountablity and believed in enforcing laws. Barack Obama apparently believes in the philosophy of "let sleeping dogs lie". Obams says, look forward and not back, forget about investigating any possible illegal activities by G.W. Bush or those in his administration. In other words the rule of law does not matter.
Unfortunately, if Obama goes down this road, it means breaking his oath of office. Did G.W. Bush defend the Constitution when he unilaterally broke treaties by allowing torture or suspending Habeas Corpus or ignoring laws or portions of laws he did not like? In my humble opinion, Bush broke his oath of office and he broke the law.
Letting Bush get away with ignoring the rule of law means that Barack Obama has every right to act just as Bush has acted. I will complain just as loudly if Obama decides to go this route. However, Republicans have given up the right to complain if Obama acts as Bush has acted.
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2 comments:
I think Obama's "look forward, not back" statement may be designed to not tip his hand. He wouldn't want Bush pardoning, say, Dick Cheney or any of the other "waterboarding is not torture" crowd in the waning days. I'm no legal expert but it's my understanding that Bush could do this.
I also believe that if we don't go after Bush & Co., other foreign entities will. I hope so anyway.
Anon. may be right, I hadn't thought of that. As of noon on Tuesday, Bush won't have that option anymore so we'll see what happens when Obama is actually President.
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