No Preemptive Pardons on Interrogation |
Even as President Bush enters his last nights in the White House, and even in the middle of an economic crisis that could take years to recover from, Democrats are showing no signs of abandoning their favorite punching bag in the form of the sitting President. Despite having kept us safe for the past seven years - an accomplishment many thought impossible on September 11th, Democrats are still looking into the possibility of prosecuting government officials who may have engaged in enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding. Even Spkr. Nancy Pelosi has expressed a willingness to prosecute members of the Justice Department. This development, combined with the testimony of Eric Holder, has led to calls for President Bush to use his authority to issue preemptive pardons to prevent attempted prosecution by the Democrats.
But such pardons would be a mistake for the Republican party, and could not only protect the Democrats from their most liberal members and a damaging internal fight, but could deprive the GOP of its biggest political opportunity since the disaster that was HillaryCare. Should Democrats attempt to prosecute, or even investigate, terrorist interrogations, it would open the party to extremely damaging criticism on numerous fronts. Perhaps the most obvious criticism would be that the Democrats were more concerned with protecting terrorists from harsher interrogation methods than they were with protecting American lives, but several other avenues of criticism exist - relating to Democratic priorities, their dedication to American security, and the time and costs involved in an investigation in the middle of an economic crisis.
If Obama wants to issue a preemptive pardon for those involved in terrorist interrogation, than he is more than capable of doing that, otherwise, the liberals in the Congress should be allowed to pursue whatever avenue they choose, and free to suffer the consequences of that choice.
Tags: Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, War on Terror


