McCain: Don’t Prosecute Over Interrogations
The Three Amigos have popped up to beg Obama not to prosecute people over interrogations.
Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sent President Obama a letter today in which they expressed strong concern about his decision to leave the door open to the possible prosecution of officials who crafted controversial Bush administration policy on detainee interrogations.As John Cole points out, isn't that the very reason we prosecute people in the first place? To have a "chilling effect" on anyone else who might think of behaving in the same way as the person we are prosecuting?
"Pursuing such prosecutions would, we believe, have serious negative effects on the candor with which officials in any administration provide their best advice, and would take our country in a backward-looking direction at a time when our detainee-related challenges demand that we look forward," the letter said.
It went on to say that such prosecutions would have a "seriously chilling effect" on the ability of lawyers to provide legal counsel to the United States.
And there is no reason for any lawyers advising the president to feel any "chilling effect" at all as a result of this, unless, like John Yoo, they are deliberately telling the president that certain illegal actions are, in fact, legal.
And it would be a very good thing for future lawyers to have to think carefully before they advise the president on the law. After all, this is the law they are talking about. They should ALWAYS think carefully before they give out such advice.
They certainly can't behave in the way Yoo did and simply make it up as they go along.
And why are they writing to Obama in the first place? It's not his decision.
Hat tip to Balloon Juice.
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Meghan McCain: "Old School" Republicans Are "Scared Sh**less"
Nunya, she is actually spot on, isn't she?
The GOP are out of power for the next twenty years if they don't find a way to be relevant to most people's lives. At the moment they are obsessed with abortion, stopping gay marriage and a host of other things which most people don't give two hoots about.
And, when it comes to the economy have they ever proposed anything other than cutting taxes? In good times they want tax cuts, in bad times they feel the economy should be stimulated by - you guessed it - tax cuts.
They are like a broken bloody record.
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