We Cannot Simply Turn the Page

A cogent, thoughtful piece from Frank Rich today in the New York Times. As much as President Obama wants to move the country forward and deal with our common, pressing problems, the specter of the Bush Administration's misdeeds will prevent him from doing so:

TO paraphrase Al Pacino in “Godfather III,” just when we thought we were out, the Bush mob keeps pulling us back in. And will keep doing so. No matter how hard President Obama tries to turn the page on the previous administration, he can’t. Until there is true transparency and true accountability, revelations of that unresolved eight-year nightmare will keep raining down drip by drip, disrupting the new administration’s high ambitions.

Rich details several scandals that have only recently come to light, including Donald Rumsfeld's bible-laced daily briefings to Bush on the Iraq war, framing it as a modern day crusade. Rich makes it clear that the Bush Administration broke the law, and that they must be held accountable for this country to move forward.

I've been saying this all along...we can't just let bygones be bygones. When Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, his apologists claimed that his motivation was to keep the nation from tearing itself apart over Watergate. But the net effect of his pardon was to let abuse of power go unchecked, emboldening future administrations to flout the law. Think of it this way: if the American people had held Nixon accountable and sent him to jail for ordering a third-rate burglary, would George W. Bush have brazenly violated domestic and international law to torture and spy on people? I think not.