What began life as a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence investigation on potential misconduct surrounding the CIA’s interrogation methods threatened to swallow the whole nation this week. President Obama stressed his opposition to holding public hearings on the matter, but was quickly chastised by his own party, including top Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House and third in the line of presidential succession.
Pelosi was quick to admonish President Obama’s mention of a blanket pardon, pounding home her unquenchable need to root out the evildoers in the Bush presidency. Her “Truth Commission” crusade is backed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and several other prominent Democrats in both the House and Senate.
In a strange turn of events Senator Dianne Feinstein is not on board with her fellow Californian Democrat. She wants to continue with her Committee’s investigation into the matter. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, has also used cautious language when speaking about the Truth Commission. In what appears to be Obama’s truest form to date, the President has vacillated between denouncing this Commission and embracing it, making it particularly difficult to see what he actually believes Congress should do.
If he can’t decide if the Armenian genocide happened or not, what is the likelihood we’ll get a straight answer on the Truth Commission?
President Obama, the consummate politician, probably realizes that publicly opening the door on the currently unpopular decisions of the previous administration is very, very dangerous. He surely realizes that so openly attacking and humiliating the previous administration with this sort of commission, the kind of attack that could certainly lead to criminal charges, leaves him vulnerable to a similar attack in the future. Democrats never forgot that President Clinton was impeached for what they insist was simply marital infidelity. It did not matter that the charge dealt with a sitting President admittedly lying (under oath) to Congress. The core of the issue does not have to be invalid for the opposition to seize the perceived persecution and turn it into a rallying cry.
