http://www.librarygrape.com/2009/04/bre ... l-for.html

Breaking: Top GOP Leaders Call for Investigation of Former Administration's Abuses of Power

Intellectual luminary Karl Rove recently had this to say about the potential for investigations into illegal acts committed by the former administration:



Stalwart Clinton impeachment champion Peggy Noonan relayed a similar sentiment over the weekend:

Quote:

Some things in life need to be mysterious. Sometimes you need to just keep walking. ... It's hard for me to look at a great nation issuing these documents and sending them out to the world and thinking, oh, much good will come of that.

Notwithstanding Rove and Noonan's protestations to the contrary, a deluge of GOP leaders in recent days have come out with a full-throated call to open up wide-ranging investigations into the former administration's abuses of power.

Here's Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC):

Quote:

We need to look at to make sure exactly what happened is known to the public and to deter any future president from doing like behavior, if it was wrong. In that regard, if we can do it in a bipartisan fashion, I think that's what we should do. Every American benefits when you can control X abuse of power. If this was an abuse of power, then we need to know about it.

Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott had this to say:

Quote:

This is outrageous. We should at least take a look at what happened and ask ourselves, should we take some action to try to prevent abuses that do occur?

House Government Reform Committee Member Dan Burton (R-IN) is outraged:

Quote:

Congress has an obligation to find out if this was appropriate. [My] panel will obtain subpoenas if necessary.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani can't contain his umbrage:

Quote:

It needs to be investigated. I think it is worthy of investigation. The facts cry out for an answer to be given... Until we get the answers to this question, [the Bush torture program] is put in some jeopardy of being misunderstood by the public.

Here's Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY):

Quote:

It's important to remember that [the President] is not personally exempt from federal laws that prohibit the corrupt actions of all government officials.

Finally, Senator Joe Lieberman (?-CT) piled on:

Quote:

I think the important question is, is there something more Congress can do to try to express through ourselves the will of the American people about a procedure for [approving torture]. [These practices] should be examined.

Amazing how much the debate can shift in just a few days, isn't it?

...Oh, hold on a sec, I'm getting a call.

Quote:

Hi, I just wrote a blog post, what's up? Oh, you read it? Yeah, those quotes are amazing right?

What? They said them when!?

Crap, I gotta call you back...

Sorry folks, it turns out that the seemingly right-minded GOP quotes I posted above were made during the Republicans' rabid campaign to launch investigations into former President Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich back in 2001.

My bad.

There were Congressional hearings about the Rich pardon, but were Clinton officials prosecuted for their involvement in the pardon? I don't remember anyone being prosecuted, but I am sure some probably wanted that route taken.

So far nobody here has been prosecuted, but some would like to see Yoo and Bybee prosecuted for their drafting of the "torture memos." I don't disagree with your general theme that Republicans are hypocrites, but I am not so sure that the Rich pardon and the torture issue are analogous.

They're not analogous in the sense that Bush definitely ordered torture and that torture is far more egregious in almost every way than a shady pardon. And yet Republicans were eager to launch every investigation under the sun against Clinton, but they want to ignore the law and look the other way with Bush.

And note the REASONS for why they were jumping at the gun to investigate Clinton. "Abuse of power." "The president is not above the law." The American public needs to know the truth.

They are arguing the exact OPPOSITE of all those things right now in regards to torture. Is there ANY Republican "principle" that isn't absolute and complete bullshit?

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/ ... ranscript/

"And all Iraqi military and civilian personnel should listen carefully to this warning: In any conflict, your fate will depend on your actions. Do not destroy oil wells, a source of wealth that belongs to the Iraqi people. Do not obey any command to use weapons of mass destruction against anyone, including the Iraqi people. War crimes will be prosecuted, war criminals will be punished and it will be no defense to say, "I was just following orders.""

--George W. Bush, 3-17-2003

A search of Beeblebrox's posts shows not a single post to the Cinemania, Box Office Bash, nor the Everyone's A Critic forums.

I wonder why someone would come to a movie discussion forum, solely to spout political rhetoric?

Did you search The Water Cooler?

I've also posted in the Foreign and Independent and Film category and it was three months before there was another post. The movie sections of this site aren't my cup o' tea so I go to other sites for those discussions.

But I like the political section of his board. So sue me.

WTF?

I've seen Beeble post on other boards, and not about politics.

Michelle Bachmann continues her parade of stupid:

I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under Democrat President Jimmy Carter. And I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it is an interesting coincidence.

Yes it is an interesting coincidence. Except that the last swine flu breakout was in February 1976. Anyone wanna guess who was president in Feb 1976? Hint: It wasn't Jimmy Carter and it wasn't a Democrat.

Btw, John Boehner just appointed her to the House GOP Energy Solutions Group. This is the woman who said that CO2 couldn't be harmful because it was "natural."

David Frum on the Spector defection: For years, many in the conservative world have wished for an ideologically purer GOP. Their wish has been granted. Happy?

Or as one commenter put it: "Yay, our sinking ship is finally free of rats...no more rats...glub...glub...glub!"

As have I.

Yep, right track.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s appearance at a Michigan county Republican Party event was scrapped this week after the county chairwoman said that hosting the moderate Utah governor would mean abandoning the party's conservative principles.

Kent County Republican Party Chairwoman Joanne Voorhees abruptly canceled the party fundraiser scheduled for Saturday.

"The voters want and expect us to stand on principle and return to our roots. Unfortunately, by holding an event with Governor Huntsman, we would be doing the exact opposite," Voorhees wrote in an e-mail quoted in The Grand Rapids Press .

Voorhees did not specify which issues she felt were contrary to the party's principles and did not return messages left at the party headquarters and on her cell phone.

The group Campaign for Michigan Families praised the cancellation, attributing it to Huntsman's support of civil unions, and urged the Oakland and Kalamazoo county parties, where Huntsman is also scheduled to speak this weekend, to do the same.

"Presumably he is testing the waters [for a presidential run] and we hope he realizes now the waters in Michigan will be hazardous to someone who endorses the homosexual activist political agenda," said campaign director Gary Glenn.