Open The Door, Richard

President Obama made a bad move leaving open the possiblity of prosecution of Bush officials for their enhanced interrogation tactics. He'd seemed to have put this issue behind him, and re-opening it creates a wound that might get worse.

In lieu of the thorough discussion of all angles of the debate which is my norm, I'll just issue a bunch of conclusory statements.

1) Obama fumbled politically, but it's an understandable mistake. The right is (understandably, too) outraged at the idea of such prosecution, while the left's base has long had dreams of seeing the Bush administration behind bars (and the hilariously named moveon.org doesn't believe in ever letting this go). Obama tried to play it up the middle, which probably can't be done.

2) This was as issue I thought should be brought up before the election (and said so on this blog)--simple questions to both candidates about possible prosecutions of Bush administration officials. Even failing to answer would have told us a lot. Instead, the debates had major media figures give McCain and Obama yet one more chance to repeat talking points from their stump speeches.

3) Even if there were a serious legal point to be made here, I don't see any chance of this not turning into a show trial, or a partisan circus.

4) Though Democrats most look forward to an airing of this issue, it'd hurt them. As it is, most Americans support how the terrorist suspects were treated (even without hearing about the useful information the authorities received), and many of those who didn't still don't want some "truth commission" to politicize the issue. Do they understand it would hurt them? Well, it wouldn't be the first time one party shot itself in the foot in its zeal to attack the other.

5) Whatever people may think of what the Bush people did, they should probably be more frightened of seeing political differences criminalized.

6) Many urging prosecution want to see people go to jail for what amounts to giving legal advice. Even if you could prove their advice was flat-out wrong (I doubt you could even do that), it's frightening to think you could punish them for what you believe is bad faith. By that standard, you could condemn the Supreme Court and countless advisors to the President and the Congress (not to mention the politicians who took the advice).

7) War crime accusations against America have been pretty popular on the left for quite a while. If they were serious about it, quite a few high-ranking politicians and major military figures would be in jail today.