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Whitehouse: If Obama doesn’t investigate Bush crimes, I will

thinkprogress.org — Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) says that he understands Obama’s reluctance to pursue investigations but that he may take matters into his own hands

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 14, 2009

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  • PNooch, on 01/13/2009, -15/+205YES. This needs to happen and I don't want to hear any BS about an investigation being un-American or bad for the country. Everyone must be held accountable for their actions, no one is above the law.
  • mgraham80, on 01/13/2009, -7/+100This could make for some steamy Whitehouse on White House action.
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -3/+85stay out of small planes, dude.
  • DillingerSmooth, on 01/13/2009, -12/+75OMG!! please dear lord...I promise to brush my teeth, help old ladies across the street and properly recycle....please please please
  • cheezintern, on 01/13/2009, -9/+70I really hope it does happen. The Democratic party traditionally is full of pussies, so hopefully this isn't just talk. What's to stop another bush-like president 20 years from now from try the same BS that bush did if they know they wont be held accountable for their actions?
  • muffcakes, on 01/14/2009, -1/+62Also if this behavior goes unaccounted for, it invites a repeat.
  • BullHunter, on 01/14/2009, -5/+56No one should be immune from justice - including the Presidents (and ex-presidents) of the USA. If anything, they should stand as an example to the people they represent and be under extra scrutiny, praised for their successes AND liable for their mistakes.
    Fail in holding them responsible and pay the price - or that statue on Liberty Island might as well come down.
  • tv43, on 01/13/2009, -7/+48Oh boy should they investigate! I can see leaving Obama free to deal with the aftermath and to be out of what will be spun as a partisan attack.
  • nihilville, on 01/14/2009, -3/+39Hell, even if they're innocent, they should get a chance to clear their names in a court of law, right?
    Considering the magnitude of the crimes they are accused of, you'd think they'd welcome the opportunity! ;)
  • Crimsoneer, on 01/14/2009, -2/+26Oh, this is hilarious "I think we in Congress have an independent responsibility, and I fully intend to discharge that responsibility"...yes, your responsibility was to make sure the president didn't do anything insane while he was in office...it wasn't to support him and then to use him as a convenient scapegoat...

    Congress seem to have conveniently forgotten how this country works, and they're just as responsible for the mess of the last 8 years as the president is.
  • tv43, on 01/13/2009, -9/+30http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b-YXJ0PwJo - Obama On Appointing Special Prosecutor To Investigate Bush’s Crimes: ‘We Need To Look Forward’
  • Jeveran, on 01/14/2009, -3/+24I can understand the transition team and the president-elect not stating anything specific until 1/20. After all, Still-President Bush hasn't issued all of his pardons yet.

    I think, though, it'd be in Obama's Administration's and the country's best interests for the Justice Department to launch an investigation as soon as possible. There is an issue most Americans don't consider, and that is the international community. If you've paid any attention at all to international news, the other hundred and fifty or so signators to the Geneva Conventions are determined to investigate the allegations of torture, and prosecute the commission of warcrimes.

    It'd be an egregious smear against the United States -- one that the country will likely never live down -- to be subjected to external investigation by the world community because we failed to police our own actions through an investigation conducted by the Obama Administration Department of Justice.
  • sumeetg, on 01/14/2009, -7/+28Finally a senator with some balls.
  • dn11, on 01/14/2009, -3/+22Obama should try to stay out of it, lest he get dragged into a new partisan war that will destroy any chance for him to get anything constructive done. But by staying out of it he should also stay out of the way, and let the rule of law take it's course, wherever it may go.
  • portnoy, on 01/14/2009, -3/+22American justice means nothing if it doesn't apply equally to everyone. Bush not only caused great damage to this country but he spread his destruction all over the globe. He needs to face the world court as well.
  • dotsona, on 01/14/2009, -1/+20What Obama is really saying: "I'm not going to do ***** about it".
  • ryan83189, on 01/14/2009, -0/+18Do you remember whitehouse.com back in the day?
    Pepperage farms remembers.

  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -3/+20congress voted for it, so did the senate. Dems and Reps both... Bring them all up on charges if you are going to do this... One person did not ***** all this ***** up...
  • CYCLEORDIE, on 01/14/2009, -1/+17has already
  • barblibrarian, on 01/14/2009, -5/+20Whitehouse and Conyers are my new heroes!!
  • audiophiliac, on 01/14/2009, -2/+17Haha, his name is Whitehouse. I totally mistook that headline as something else.
  • pigfister, on 01/14/2009, -5/+19Funny you are getting dug down for Obama's own words. new puppet same crimes.
  • mikelieman, on 01/14/2009, -2/+16Why do people see the simple ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES in any way as 'partisan'?

    Is it connected some way, that those who are "soft on crime" also see the investigation and prosecution of alleged crimes anything but the prosecutor's fidelity to their sacred oaths?

    Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time.
  • justjoehere, on 01/14/2009, -1/+14Yes, all politicians should be investigated for crimes against the country.
  • breadfred, on 01/14/2009, -0/+12And if you care for others, stay out of big ones too.
  • wirerat1, on 01/14/2009, -1/+13First, I call *****. This is a cheap ploy to try to capitalize on the end of the Bush term. What is he going to do? Investigate? Wow, that's powerful stuff. Where was he during the last Congress when Kucinich was advocating impeachment? Whitehouse is just jumping on the bandwagon now because he knows the Democratic party is going to pay lip service to pursuing the Bush administration for war crimes, but they will eventually just make this all disappear.

    Second, it is absolutely vital that we pursue this matter. Be it Bush, Rockefeller, Feinstein, or (hopefully) Pelosi need to be brought up on charges then so be it. These people are not above the law and need to be pursued for the oversight and approval of torture and not to mention warrantless wiretapping among other things. If they knew about all this and stood by, they approved it by their silence. We can not allow ANY ADMINISTRATION to blindly walk away otherwise we set a horrible prescedent that will only encourage future administrations to do horrible things, keeping it from the public and then feigning ignorance or passing the buck when things come to light. This can not stand, action must be taken.
  • matude, on 01/14/2009, -0/+12There's actually a senator named Whitehouse? Sensationalizing made too easy...
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -2/+14Yeah, you keep on believing that they were all decieved by one man and his team... The same man and team you all keep referring to as a chimp, incompetent, idiot, etc.....

    You are sending very mixed signals here... Is Bush a mastermind or what?...
  • mikelieman, on 01/14/2009, -1/+12"The presentation of information to Congress and the general public through deceit, craft, trickery, dishonest means, and fraudulent representations, including lies, half-truths, material omissions, and statements made with reckless indifference to their truth or falsity, while knowing and intending that such fraudulent representations would influence Congress' decisions regarding authorization to use military force and funding for military action, constitutes interfering with, obstructing, impairing, and defeating a lawful government function of a department of the United States within the meaning of (18 USC ) Section 371. "
  • kyravon, on 01/14/2009, -6/+17Yes, please do not let them get away with their crimes. That would be the worst part of it!
    They MUST be held accountable!!!!!!!!!!
  • JQP123, on 01/14/2009, -1/+12"Everyone must be held accountable for their actions, no one is above the law."

    Fair enough. Just be sure to include any member of Congress from either party that ever voted to aid and abet any of the Bush "crimes". No one is above the law.
  • dn11, on 01/14/2009, -5/+15I've seen clouds that look like ponies in certain light and if a squint real hard at them, I've written a book about these cloud ponies and their agenda. You can get it now for only $19.99 or my new DVD "Cloud Ponies, What They are and How to Stop Them"... now for a special package deal only $29.99.
  • Sean42, on 01/14/2009, -1/+10yes, you are right. we should not even try.
    There should be no repercussions for abusing power while in office, lying and operating against the Constitution.
    What could possibly go wrong?
  • DouglasQ, on 01/14/2009, -4/+13Sheldon Whitehouse. He even has the NAME of a patriotic American vigilante bounty hunter.
  • koolkeith12345, on 01/14/2009, -1/+9*waits for an 'accident' to happen to sheldon*
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -0/+8I'm sorry but if Bush is going to be brought up on war crimes then every single politician in congress and the senate who voted in favor of his policies also need brought up on charges...

    If you are not willing to do that then drop it..... I'm sick of all this blame placing on one individual for a corrupt governments actions...
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -1/+9I think the patriot act exonerates them for A LOT of the things we think are illegal. Sad.
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -1/+9"I'm not a crook..." - Richard Nixon
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -0/+7I'm assuming that Dennis Kucinich is an old hero?
  • raks1991, on 01/14/2009, -12/+19Obama might be a bigger phoney.
    America is moving toward fascism.
  • Sean42, on 01/14/2009, -0/+7"pile of lies all the accusations are."

    warrentless wiretapping.
    torture.
    firing of US attorneys.
    an amazing amount of faith-based-incompetance during the early reconstruction.

    pay attention to the world around you and not fox news.
  • roddack, on 01/14/2009, -0/+7Fascism is an authoritarian nationalist ideology focused on solving economic, political, and social problems that its supporters see as causing national decline or decadence

    Ever since Lincoln we have seen nothing but a consolidation of Government power that sends its agents to correct the economy social and political problems of the country and now the world. I don't see how you can't think that is moving toward facscism.

    It isn't that I am a Obama hater I am someone who hates the fact that BOTH parties want nothing more than to expand the size and scope of government way beyond their limited constitutional powers and then at the same time watch the people cheer about it.

    and where the ***** did you get that I said Obama was a communist? Quit being a ***** blind sheep
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -0/+7actually just get into a bomb shelter, and work from there.
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -2/+8My friend, if this guys go unpunished things like this will happen again and again. You can't just close your eyes and expect everything to fix itself. We cannot allow this to happen again in the future. The first step is to hold this people accountable.
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -0/+6A few of my high school classes remember that site pretty well...
  • inactive, on 01/14/2009, -0/+6Kusinich has balls. He brought forth letters of impeachment and everybody in the House and Senate was still willing to give B&C a free pass. It's deplorable that crimes are committed and our government just looks the other way.
  • GregFD3S, on 01/14/2009, -3/+9Justice.
  • CressCrowbits, on 01/14/2009, -4/+10You forget that Bush pulled the US out of the ICC, saying they would only support it if US citizens couldn't be tried in it. Obviously someone was afraid of something...
  • dn11, on 01/14/2009, -3/+9yes, of course, because Mr. Babyman's tyrannical hegemony of posting digg stories is almost the same as war crimes by the President and his administration. it is SO ironic...
  • roddack, on 01/14/2009, -1/+7See saying something bad about Obama on digg gets you dugg down 99% of the time.

    But you are correct we are just coming closer and closer to fascism and it is all done in the name of the "public good"

    People will loose everything have to their own thundering applause.
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