Bush pardoned a bunch of turkeys this week, yet left off those responsible for the engineering and implementation of torture. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Bush administration thinks that the Justice Department torture memos give guilty officials cover. Last night on Rachel Maddow, her guest, constitutional legal scholar Jonathan Turley, expressed his belief that the torture memos have little to do with why no torture pardons were made. Instead, Turley believes that the Bush administration will use the Democrats’ conciliatory nature to repair his legacy.
The Democratic leadership would love to have a pardon so they could go to their supporters and say, “Look, there’s really nothing we could do.” Well, the Bush administration is calling their bluff. They know that the Democratic leadership will not allow criminal investigations or indictments …
This will effectively repair Bush’s legacy. Because Bush will be able to say that the Democrats had their chance to prosecute but didn’t think there was a basis for it. Basically clearing his administration of any wrongdoing because the Democrats don’t have backbones.
We don’t need to give these guys a pass. The Republicans are weak right now and we need to do what is right and stomp these crooks out while we can. We need to make these things stick to Bush’s legacy so that he doesn’t become a Republican hero like Ronald Regan 20 years down the line. George W. Bush should be remembered as a torturer, an illegal warmonger and an economy-destroyer. Giving this guy a pass is not thinking of the political future. Grow a spine, Dems!