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As the
Bush administration leaves power behind
and moves on, a number of rabidly
partisan Democrats are talking about
starting a criminal investigation and if
possible, criminal trials against the
outgoing administration with a view to
putting them in jail.
Those
leading the charge for this liberal
witch hunt are John Conyers, a black
Michigan congressman who has been around
way too long.
Andrew C.
McCarthy, writing in the National Review
describes him as thus: “It’s not easy
being John Conyers. He is, famously, the
most hardcore of left-wing partisans, a
hero to the Democrat party’s
fifth-column, antiwar base. The House
Judiciary Committee chairman’s days are
chockablock with corruption quests; the
ACLU, CAIR — so many interest groups
need water carrying. If it’s not the
Bush White House, it’s the FBI; if it’s
not the NSA, it’s the Justice
Department. Interrogation, surveillance,
the Patriot Act — you name it, he’s
against it, and he’s investigating it.”
Another
cheerleader for criminal investigation
of the Bush administration is New York
Times columnist and Nobel Laureate for
Economics, Paul Krugman, who claims
Bush, “deliberately misled the nation
into invading Iraq." He conveniently
forgets that most Democrats were all for
it before they were against it.
Vice-President Joe Biden and House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi have both declared
that they're also in favor of
prosecuting members of the Bush
Administration.
What’s
this is all about isn’t any real crime,
but rather these highly partisan
Democrats are proposing a witch hunt in
hopes of jailing their political
opponents for policy differences. This
is the sort of thing that happens in
South America and other third world
countries.
Writing in
“Townhall Daily,” columnist John Hawkins
wrote, “Trying to prosecute key Bush
Administration officials on what are
viewed as trumped up, politically based
charges would create a firestorm of
partisanship and outright hatred that
would surpass anything in American
history since the Civil War. Members of
a political party in the United States,
whether it be Republican or Democrat,
are simply not going to stand by idly
with their hands in their pockets while
their political views are criminalized.
At best,
this would lead to tit-for-tat
prosecutions. By that, I mean if
Democrats throw George W. Bush in jail
for ten years, Republicans will do their
best to find an excuse to throw Barack
Obama in jail for ten years -- and don't
think it can't happen. The American
political system tends to be cyclical
and so today the Democrats may be on top
-- but in four to eight years, when
Obama leaves office, it's entirely
possible the GOP could be in charge of
both Houses of Congress -- and looking
for an opportunity to get payback for
Bush. Again, that is the best case
scenario. The worst case scenario could
mean blood in the streets, riots, and a
breakdown of the ‘orderly transfer of
power’ that has always been a hallmark
of American democracy.”
In the
third world, where they play politics
for keeps, leaders often remain in power
as dictators for the simple reason that
once they lose power, they are apt to
lose their freedom or their lives. The
fact that we here in the United States
have never gone after our former
presidents for perceived misdeeds or out
of partisan spite is one reason why our
brand of democracy has lasted. Hopefully
the new president will not allow the
persecution or arrest one of his Oval
Office predecessors - like the newly
installed dictator of a banana republic
after a coup. If it happens, then our
days as a representative republic as we
know it are over.
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