Saturday, February 21, 2009
Investigate Bush?
A good summary from the New York Times of the history of efforts to hold past administrations accountable. I think the congressional commission model holds the most promise; a party of outside experts like the 9/11 Commission can be criticized as out of touch (unlike Congress, where members are accountable to votes), and prosecution failed in the Iran-Contra scandal. The Church Commission after Nixon left laws in place that endure today; I think that kind of mark is necessary to avoid a repetition of the excesses of power in the Bush administration.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
What about a 9/11 type commission for the current financial crisis? What happened? Who is to blame? What should be done to prevent future problems? Since both political parties seem to share the blame, I suspect that there would be much enthusiasm in Congress for such a commission.
As for the alleged power abuses by the Bush Administration, if a commission finds Bush, Cheney, etc "guilty" what is to be done beyond that? Doesn't the election process hold people responsible anyways? Certainly, Bush was limited to 2 terms, but the Republican party was punished at the polls in November.
As for the current financial crisis, I think we can all agree that to a degree, everyone is to blame. Dems, Reps, bankers, overextended homeowners, investors, Madoff...
If a commission is delegated to look into the financial crisis, would this be productive? The way I see it, all parties involved are going to be jockeying for influence to shift the blame from them.
Post a Comment