BRILLIANT HANSON, ON THE INTERROGATION ISSUE - AT 7:34 A.M. ET:  Victor David Hanson shows why he's Victor Davis Hanson in the best piece I've read on the prisoner interrogation issue.  Hanson goes back into American history - a subject unknown to many "journalists" today - and demonstrates why any prosecution of Bush officials is way outside our traditions and our values:

First, remember that the Constitution already permits ongoing audit of the executive branch. Watergate prompted Nixon’s resignation in face of impending impeachment. Iran-Contra almost destroyed the Reagan administration. President Clinton’s sexual antics with a female subordinate, and lying about it subsequently (speaking no truth to those without power), prompted his impeachment. Nancy Pelosi, who was briefed on the options of waterboarding in the dark days following 9/11, had ample opportunity to hold congressional hearings on Bush’s overemphasis on homeland security. Her outrage now rings false, an unseemly ploy to hide her complicity in what she once thought was responsible governance. 

And...

Dwight Eisenhower did not open hearings to pave the way for indictment of federal officials of the Roosevelt administration or California lawyers working for Gov. Earl Warren, who in concert planned and carried out the forced internment of American citizens into camps. Much less did he bring Truman & Co. up on charges of using nuclear weapons to incinerate Japanese civilians.

And...

Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge did not seek indictment of Woodrow Wilson’s Justice Department, which did everything from strengthening segregation to jailing war critics and helping foster the odious vigilantes of the American Protective League. No subsequent administration tried to arrest Lincoln’s Cabinet members for signing off on the suspension of habeas corpus after Fort Sumter — unconstitutional decrees that eventually would mean some 15,000 Americans were held without charges for indeterminate length.

COMMENT:  Wonderful, wonderful.  Read the whole thing.

April 28, 2009