Too much like Bush: The fall of Greg Craig and the rise of Rahm Emanuel's Obama

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Yesterday, quoting Andrew Sullivan, I noted that I remain bullish on Obama -- though I also noted my own rather significant reservations.

Well, those reservations deepened when I read Time's excellent piece on the fall of Greg Craig, Obama's ex-counsel. Craig, a Clintonite turned Obama advisor, was the man tasked with undoing the dark side of Bush's war on terror, including torture and Gitmo. At first, he and Obama were pretty much on the same side. In time, with partisan politics trumping principle, Obama moved away from some of the commitments he made during the campaign and sided increasingly with Rahm Emanuel and his political, as opposed to legal, advisors. Here's a key passage:

Obama needed to regain control quickly, and he started by jettisoning liberal positions he had been prepared to accept — and had even okayed — just weeks earlier. First to go was the release of the pictures of detainee abuse. Days later, Obama sided against Craig again, ending the suspension of Bush's extrajudicial military commissions. The following week, Obama pre-empted an ongoing debate among his national-security team and embraced one of the most controversial of Bush's positions: the holding of detainees without charges or trial, something he had promised during the campaign to reject.

Yes, Obama has accomplished a great deal, including putting a stop to "enhanced" interrogation and closing the secret CIA prisons, but, on other key matters, he has turned on the old Obama, the Obama of last year's campaign, and embraced Bush and Cheney.

Yes, I'm still bullish, even now. I still think he can do great and transformative things as president, that he can still be the progressive yet pragmatic president I and so many others hoped he would be, and I credit him for being so politically astute. But it's hard to be optimistic when a good, decent, and principled man like Craig is basically sent packing and when Obama seems to be moving further and further away from the man who was elected with hope and the promise of change.

Sen. Leahy preparing to investigate Bush crimes

By Michael J.W. Stickings

HuffPo:

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and White House Chief Counsel Greg Craig discussed on Tuesday the Senator's proposal to set up a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate potential crimes of the Bush administration.

"I went over some of the parameters of it and they were well aware at the White House of what I'm talking about," Leahy told the Huffington Post. "And we just agreed to talk further."

Obama may or may not be on board -- he has said he wants to look ahead, not back, but also that crimes will be prosecuted -- but it may not matter, at least not at first:

Congress will likely proceed with investigations regardless of whether Obama is on board.

"Oh yeah," Leahy said when asked if he would go forward without Obama's endorsement. "I think the Senate and the Congress as whole has an oversight responsibility that has to be carried out here anyway. Now it is much easier with the cooperation of the administration. A lot of things with the subpoenas I issued the past few years, we got a lot of information but a lot of it was held back."

TNR's Jason Zengerle: "Of course, in a way, this might not be such a bad outcome for Obama. Let someone else do the dirty (and politically polarizing) work of investigating; then, if such an investigation turns up particularly egregious instances of illegality (which, depending on how egregious they are, could presumably stoke public outrage), his Justice Department can step in and prosecute."

Needless to say, stay tuned.