When Obama wins, is it a good idea to prosecute Bush & Co.?

[Vesayen]

The justice department has in effect been turned off for 8 years, regarding anyone in the administration.

When Obama wins, do you think he should have the new head of the justice department pursue crimes criminal charges of those in and associated with the administration which are rooted in fact and have not passed the statute of limitations?

I see the pros and cons. The pros is that this would send a large message, to our people, our future leaders, to the world and to history that America does not allow this sort of corruption to go unchecked.

On the other hand, the Republicans are going to give Obama a hell of a hard time-will pursuing criminal charges make this even worse?

There is also the problem that some people from Obamas own party may have been complicit in the crimes of some Republicans.....

My thoughts?

"Yes..... and *flinch*"

The *flinch* is because I know that saying yes means I am essentially volunteering to be punched in the face, but I KNOW that it is a good idea in the end, even if it is going to be really painful to start.

[Imran Siddiqui]

There is also the problem that some people from Obamas own party may have been complicit in the crimes of some Republicans.....

Yaaaah... what was the vote on the Iraq War resolution?

"Sorry, Vice President Biden, you have to go away too"

[Nikolai]

Never going to happen. When did a president get an impeachment last time? Higher state officials are practically immune I think.

[Seedle]

Whooo, tough one. On the one hand, like you said, you need to send a message that corruption and (criminal) lies are bad. On the other, we need unity right now. Prosecuting Republicans, even for legitimate offenses, would open a huge can of worms that is perhaps, and unfortunately, best left closed.

[-Jrabbit]

* [punches Vesayen in face] *

[Jaguar]

[Ben Kenobi]

I think they should. It would show exactly what the Obama administration is all about, fighting the battles of 2000.

[Dinner]

I think it is always a good idea to punish people who broke the law. That said Bush will be handing out the pardons like candy after the election.

[Victor Galis]

They should, but only for actual crimes committed. Not gross incompetence. That probably means only getting some of the mid-level flunkies.

At the very least the Obama administration needs to be a lot more transparent and keep politics out of non-political positions.

[Swissy]

The House and Senate didn't do much about it in the past two years. For good reason, if they did there would be a backlash. They knew it and stayed away. I don't think Obama is that dumb, he pretty much threw the left-wing kook blog-o-sphere types overboard once he had the nomination pretty much sewn up. Those will be the only ones calling for Bush's head. Since Obama doesn't need them anymore, why rile up the rest of America.

[Vesayen]

Because it is the right thing to do in a moral and a legal sense?

[-Jrabbit]

Sorry, this is politics. Legality and morals have to take a back seat.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
* [punches Vesayen in face] *

[Kirnwaffen]

At this point, I think it's just time to move on. Was the Bush administration incompetent? Absolutely. Criminal? By and large, probably not. There's no sense in starting all manner of investigations that will appear to be a partisan witch hunt. We have real problems that we need to be working on, and, realistically, we'll need support from both sides of the aisle to make meaningful progress. Prosecuting people is not the way to go about that.

I've always felt that one of the greatest failings of the Bush administration was their insistence that they had some kind of real mandate after winning the 2004 elections. I think Barack Obama would do well to remember on January 20th that there are many millions of Americans who voted against him.

[Barnabas]

Bush is a criminal, if Fujimori may go to jail soon, why not Bush? He is worse