Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

My Investigation of the Bush Administration

In response to the “public” outcry from some of my fellow left-leaning bloggers, I am now reporting on my extensive investigation of the Bush administration and their tactics from 2001-2009.

OK, so I didn’t actually do an extensive investigation. But I’ll cut to the morals of the story:

Don’t torture.

Don’t suck at governing.

Have an open mind.

Bring everyone to the table.

Don’t lie.

Don’t use terrible tragedies as a line to string up votes.

Don’t make stuff up to support personal vendettas.

Don’t leave good people hanging out to dry.

Expand your economic vocabulary beyond “TAX CUTS.”

Walk the walk. (see Katrina)

Don’t risk American lives to score political points.

Don’t risk American jobs to score political points.

Short-term actions have long-term consequences.

Don’t let your Vice President break the law (or anyone, for that matter).

PS, don’t let your Vice President shoot anyone.

Man-made problems have man-made solutions.

My fellow citizens, I am a progressive. Like you, I have lived in America for the past eight years. Like you, I have been frustrated, flabbergasted, and furious at the actions and lack of transparency of the 43rd President of the United States of America. I don’t know everything that the Bush administration did wrong, and I’m not sure I want to.

But I do know this: we must resist the urge to stay mired in the past. Now isn’t just the time for healing, it’s also the time for governing, for progress, and for getting things done. It has been eight long years since we’ve done anything of value in the annals of our government, and the last thing we need to do is waste our time trying to figure out what the Bushites did. We know that they were bad, and bad at the simple stuff (like not torturing!).

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and all the rest stood trial for nearly two years in what we liked to call the 2008 Presidential Election. Our victory–and the final verdict in that trial–was the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. That is the way it should stay. Investigating, indicting, and otherwise implicating members of outgoing administrations sets a dangerous and dastardly precedent that will clog up and slow down government more than it already is (if you can imagine that!).

Congress, the President, and our state/local governments have plenty to worry about: energy, the environment, the ECONOMY, our military, the safety of our families and the prestige of America overseas. George W. Bush doesn’t deserve an investigation. This isn’t an implicit “forgiveness,” but rather, a public renouncement that might be much worse than any trial or fact-finding mission could be.

Remember that change we voted for a few months ago? Live it. Now is the time to get to work.

Please join the journeying progressive at For Which It Stands for legendary musings and an insatiable quest for knowledge.


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8 comments

  1. Hollede

    George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and all the rest stood trial for nearly two years in what we liked to call the 2008 Presidential Election. Our victory–and the final verdict in that trial–was the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. That is the way it should stay. Investigating, indicting, and otherwise implicating members of outgoing administrations sets a dangerous and dastardly precedent that will clog up and slow down government more than it already is (if you can imagine that!).

    However I am not entirely convinced. I do not know what the answer is, but have watched republicans (especially three generations of bush and four plus decades of Cheney and Rumsfield) savage the Constitution and tear down this country for almost 30 years. And who gets impeached? Bill Clinton? WTF. When does this bullshit end? And the Democrats continue to take the high ground (sort of).

    I know, we keep doing it. and then they do it back. My only question is, when do we hold lawbreakers accountable at the highest levels? If we do not, where is the motivation to stop?

  3. John Allen

    Forget the Iraq war. Forget Katrina. Forget everything, except torture and there is still reason to at least investigate. The government admits that people have died in prison from mistreatment (torture). Do we say, “Oh, well at least it wasn’t me” and just move on? Where do we draw the line at mismanagement and possibly (likely) criminal behavior from our elected officials?

    So many things have gone wrong in this country over the last 8 years that need to be investigated. We investigate other events all the time. What is wrong with looking for the truth in this situation?

    Billions, no trillions of dollars have disappeared. The mismanagement of the Iraq reconstruction fund alone is one of the biggest economic fiascoes, ever. Was it simple mismanagement? How will we ever know if we don’t investigate? Dozens of people have died in custody. Did mistreatment authorized from the top levels of our government cause those deaths? How will we ever know if we don’t investigate?

    I say, investigate the hell out of everything the Bush administration did over the last 8 years and let the chips fall where they may. If we let this slide then the next time will be even worse, if you can imagine that.

  4. creamer

     Some of the stuff is either policy choices or as in Katrina being inept and unequiped to deal with the challenge. Negligent? Maybe, but I wouldn’t spend a lot of time there.

    But torture? That, no matter what Shooter says, is a crime. I take that personaly. At the very least we need to investigate, lay out the facts, and stand before the world and apologize.

    I might add, that I am inclined to ignore things that might be precieved as petty by the nation at large. It is so important to reach 60 senate seats in 2010. Judging by the actions of the republicans to the stimulus bill our survival may be at stake.

  5. psychodrew

    People have suffered and continue to suffer.

    People have died and continue to die.

    I’m not interested in the torture debate.  For me, there is a gray area and the whole country went batshit crazy after 9/11.

    But this is more than just torture.  We gave no-bid contracts to well-connect companies.  Some of them did shoddy work that harmed our troops (KBR) and others fleeced the taxpayers.  This cannot stand.  

    Beyond the war, our economy collapsed.  People are losing their homes and their lives.  How many people have committed suicide as a result of this crisis?  If people committed criminal acts, they need to be prosecuted.

    We have to investigate and punish.  If not, how can we ever hold anyone to account in the future.

  6. ItStands

    But we need to be very careful how we go forward with an investigation. Does it become an international media hoopla with famous figures pointing figures and shouting out incredulous lines to a bloodthirsty media? Do we rhetorically knock down the statue of Bush like the Iraqis did to Saddam? Because that smells very, very bad to me, and I know that guys like Rahm Emanuel know about bad-smelling political stunts (which makes me worry).

    But if this is an honest investigation, transparent, where people keep their heads on straight and we presume everyone in the previous administration to be innocent until proven guilty, and we tell the talking heads to cool it and the American people that this isn’t a witch hunt, it’s accountability and responsibility…then it is appropriate.

    But I have a feeling there’s as much a chance of that happening as there is of moose not being hunted from helicopters in Alaska.

    Please join the journeying progressive at For Which It Stands for legendary musings and an insatiable quest for knowledge.

  7. John Allen

    There is a recent account by one of the Gitmo guards that details some of the worst abuses, including anal rape with broom sticks and other devices. Several bloggers are already talking about these stories.

    This from Digby:

    “The medical personnel involvement is sick and after all the stuff about force feeding and using prisoners’ psychological profiles for interrogation purposes, I guess I’m not as surprised as Horton is. But the fact that the white house consciously and knowingly used anal rape to control, interrogate and punish prisoners and went to some length to protect those who were doing it from scrutiny, still has the power to stun me.

    Are we really just going to let this stuff go? Really? “

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