the love and admiration of most everyone on the planet, except of course for the fascist/neo-nazi types.

and would have cost a lot of political capital. Frankly I would rather have seen Obama spend that political capital on actually standing up to Republicans legislatively.

Bryant

what I think is reasonable to expect from a president is pretty much what they said they were going to do during their campaign. Obama never said a word about prosecuting Bush.

If I would have one regret about Obama's action in tenuere, it would be that lack of action in that case. But give the so powerfull GOP hate machine, I cannot imagine what could have happened it the effort was lauched.

how easy they are or how satisfactory the result might be? This line of thinking is seriously fucked up.

Somebody made a comment earlier today on DU that prosecution wasn't realistic. Another DUer said it was.

I decided to create a poll to see the overall opinion of DU.

Where did I say that the standard for pursuing criminal prosecutions is how easy they are or how satisfactory the result might be?

Reading comprehension appears to be an issue for some.

and the attempt on Clinton was what we got. That was pure revenge.
If Obama had prosecuted Bush/Cheney (can't do one without the other, and you'd have to throw in maybe Rumsfeld at minimum to really get at the rot) it would have made every Dem president and every cabinet member of every Dem president a target forever after.
OTOH, it WAS the right thing to do. Iraq sent two very bad messages, neither of which, once sent, can be unsent:

1 - If you're the US, you can torture at will.
2 - If you don't have nukes, you're safe.

Every Administration since the drooling idiot's is saddled with this legacy.

to the public about this..Democrats with unfortunate opinions due to political expediency.

They could very well have merged together as a party to voice their concerns..so it's
not that I disagree with you, but they were not going to go near it..even on that level
of investigating because they knew exactly where it would lead..guilty.

I am not blaming the public, but I do believe we would have needed to be out en masse
to get this done.

whatever his/her crimes. Bush was a stupid man. But I don't think he knows wrong from a hole in the ground.
Plus, we'd have to relive the entire miserable Iraq war. None for me thanks. Let him live the rest of his life in disgrace, the shit-head.

President Obama to attempt to get the Justice Depadtment to prosecute Bush.

In my opinion that would be a bad thing to do.

So, the next time a Republican is elected president he should prosecute the pre ious Democrat for something?

It is realistic to start, at a minimum, with the torture and follow investigations from there.

Obama should have investigated the lies we were told during the Iraq invasion. We could have started with underlings and followed the investigations. Of course, he wouldn't say, "let's prosecute bush!" But, he could have initiated investigations into the clear illegalities and let the investigations run their respective courses. And, when it ran into executive privilege or hard evidence against the president and VP, let the public opinion guide the course. If that path had been followed and the evidence laid out for all to see, I think we would have seen a majority in support of the efforts.

Unfortunately the precedent would give an already out-of-control right wing a tool that they would forever after wield with uninhibited glee.

Right is right and wrong is wrong...Period.

Realisic? No. Enjoyable? Yes.

or do we want a country, realistically, that puts it's money where it's mouth is? Obviously the PTB don't care about former law breakers. Nixon was nearly removed from office and Clinton was impeached in the House...so realistically we should try and respect the law or just admit we don't believe in it.

The BFEE constantly broke the law, realistically they should have been prosecuted for doing so. Pretending this is partisan politics makes one realistically look like they endorse the law breakers imo.

It was just too impractical to go after Reagan over Iran-Contra, better to let him shit on the law and pretend he was suffering from dementia. It was too impractical to go after GHB's kids during the S&L scandals, nobody wants to see the sons of the current POTUS on trial for fraud. It was far too impractical to end the witch hunt for Bill Clinton's penis, the GOP needed him to be impeached to keep people from noticing certain GOPoliticians resigning in disgrace.

We are a nation that likes our illusions, like the one that we follow and uphold the Constitution to be the highest form of law.

It would have been teh right thing to do, since there's abundant evidence of criminal acts. Hell, they didn't even bother hiding that they were committing war crimes.

That said, I can understand why he didn't. It would have been seen as entirely partisan by the right and the right own the media so the media would have presented it as entirely partisan.

Denial is the easiest and most comfortable.

We are so screwed it is unbelievable.

Kiss American Empire good-bye all you empire lovers. You have enabled the crooks to kill the American dream. It is now the American nightmare... take a bow.

This was not a simple "break in" of the other parties head quarters (Nixon should have been prosecuted as well) but having to resign sent enough of a message I guess that his action will not be tolerated. Bush started a war based on lies where thousands died as well as tortured people. Not prosecuting sends the message to any future president that they can do whatever they want without repercussions.

But using the EU or another international court. Frankly, I would love to see Bush/Cheney tried in an Iraqi court, but that ain't never gonna happen. Since it involved war crimes, in needs to be for the world to judge, not Obama.

Politicians should not have the ability to influence who gets prosecuted and who doesn't.

Congress should be stripped of the power to impeach; either it should have the power to remove a president honestly, as a political decision (like a vote of no confidence here in the UK), or it should not, but pretending that the impeachment power will or could be used apolitically is foolish.

And prosecutors and the police should have the power to prosecute the president if they break the law, and it should be their decision whether or not to do so.

It should have been done years ago. But impeach was off the table, remember?

In the words of Rumsfeld, "Sweep everything up, related and not."