Do I even need to ask who is the more trustworthy here? President Obama and former vice president Richard B. Cheney yesterday gave the country the national security debate it never had during last year's campaign, with the two outlining starkly divergent views of American power and the presidency in the fight against terrorism.Because we've never had a previous administration so corrupt!
In an extraordinary set of speeches, the still-new president, who refers often to the problems he inherited from his predecessor, and the previous administration's most forceful spokesman laid out their positions just minutes apart in locations separated by barely a mile. The virtual debate touched on Congress and the courts, interrogation tactics and truth commissions, and competing assessments of the nation's post-Sept. 11 history that are currently informing the debate in Washington over how best to balance public safety and civil liberties.
Presidential scholars could not recall another moment when consecutive administrations intersected so early and in such a public way.
In my lifetime I can think of only Nixon and Reagan who played fast and loose with the Constitution. Nixon is the epitome of why the founders included a process for impeachment. Nixon used the full power of the executive office for his own personal gain. Had he not resigned he would have surely been impeached. And I think his waiting so long damaged the country in a way we have never truly recovered from.
Reagan also used the powers of the presidency to advance a personal agenda -- one that would set this country on a course that would eventually lead to the brink of a second great depression. Regulations were imposed on corporations and the banking industry during FDR's administration for a reason. To prevent another great depression -- and for 50 years they worked! Then along came Ronnie, hell bent on deregulation and now look at where we are.
I've said before that I never thought there could be a president worse than Nixon or Reagan, but George W. Bush proved me wrong. He is the worst combination of the two. He used his pulpit to steal from the poor to benefit the rich. And his partner in crime, Dick Cheney, helped.
Cheney's fingerprints are all over the tortured prisoners at Guantanamo.
We may be in a serious depression, but that should not prevent the truth from coming out -- or from convicting Bush-Cheney for war crimes.
