To enjoy future tasty goodness, continue to attack W's legacy

Sure, it's hard to believe right now, as we survey the smouldering wreckage left by eight years of Republican government, that someday soon lots of people may have forgotten about the Bush years. And who could blame them? The era often tempted many of us to ourselves into alcoholic stupors, in hopes that the resulting amnesia might reduce the pain somewhat -- though (fortunately) most of us usually resisted the temptation. Still, the Bush era is an unsurpassed goldmine of Republican horror stories, and we will benefit by digging into it from time to time

Tasty goodness #1: You want the Rs in control again!?? After W?!? The Rs know W hurt them in 2006 and 2008. They now face the following problem: if they don't rehabilitate W, they're stuck with his negatives in 2010 and probably in 2012. So they must try to polish his image -- and (according to rumors, at least) that's what the RNC wants its next chairman to do. Without a counter-attack, their propaganda will increase the (now small) number of Americans who regard W as a misunderstood golden boy. Unfortunately for them, a substantial body of evidence shows that the Administration was incompetent, dishonest, vindictive, partisan, corrupt, and crony-ridden. The Rs thus face a miserable dilemma: they must rehabilitate W, but whenever they try to do so, they are vulnerable to exposure as liars and wackos. By keeping the horror stories in public circulation, Ds may change public perceptions enough to help in 2012 or 2016 -- and maybe even in 2020

Tasty goodness #2: We can't let that happen again! We need reform now! After Watergate, Congress investigated and then acted: as a result, we got various reforms, including the (now expired) 1978 provisions for independent prosecutors. The abuses of the outgoing Administration have been widespread and egregious -- and current statutes were apparently inadequate to brake the abuses. Put on your progressive thinking cap and decide what reforms are needed. Whenever you're not sure what reforms are needed, you obviously want a Congressional investigation to decide what (if any) reforms are needed. And Obama can enhance his bipartisan image by supporting reforms that criminalize Administration abuses

Tasty goodness #3: They ought to be in jail! Some of them really should. Others deserve the boot: why, for example, was torture memo author Jay Bybee rewarded with a seat on the Federal bench?and are we really going to let Alice Martin (famous for the politically-motivated prosecution of Don Siegelman) stay on the DOJ payroll in Alabama? And if we really can't prosecute those who improperly injected partisanship into government hiring, or those who improperly used government resources to help political campaigns, then statutory changes are needed; see Tasty goodness #2

Tasty goodness #4: Support international law! By joining the ICC, we can help future Presidents remember that torture and other war crimes are no-noes. Of course, we should be prosecuting the crooks ourselves, but if (for some reason) other countries filed charges first, there's nothing wrong with extradition

Enjoy the inauguration! There's work to do!

and he's on board and spoke for me.

The special comment is here:
COUNTDOWN: Special Comment: Why Obama Must Prosecute Bush's Torture
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x261971

Seymore Hersh also said he will have whistle blowers
that would talk tomorrow.

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

We need to embrace his followers!

Seat them at the head of the table and bust out the good wine.

in order to make room for the Busheviks at the big people table.

And more generally, I do think it's a good idea to be nice to people whenever possible

Nevertheless, if one is going to play, one should choose a game worth winning and then play to win

is a fool's game.

I'm done with Bush. I don't want to talk about him, think about him, see him. I don't care what happens to him. He is a sad man who has caused unthinkable misery to many. He will live a miserable life regardless of whether it's in prison or on his ranch.