...I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve. So this is an area where I would want to exercise judgment -- I would want to find out directly from my Attorney General ... are there possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And I think it's important-- one of the things we've got to figure out in our political culture generally is distinguishing between really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity. Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law -- and I think that's roughly how I would look at it. 
 
--Senator Barack Obama in response to a reporter's question concerning that if he were to become president, would he or wouldn't he seek charges against the Bush administration for war crimes 
 
Probably a lot of people who will read the new book by Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan will think: "Alright, so tell us something we didn't know." 
 
McClellan is not the one who most people expected to be the source of the harsh criticisms reported to be found in his book titled "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception". A Bush loyalist who journeyed from Texas to Washington once Bush was elected President, McClellan was Bush's mouthpiece from 2003 to 2006. 
 
Now, he feels it's his turn to communicate to the public what he thought of the Bush administration's policies as well as how he viewed the individual actions of its members. Already people are calling into question this man's motives, impugning his integrity. The current press secretary Dana Perino described McClellan as "disgruntled" and Karl Rove said that McClellan's writings "sound like a left-wing blogger". 
 
Well, as a proud left-wing blogger, I think Rove's take on McClellan's book is a little short-sighted. By characterizing the words in McClellan's book as something only a left-wing blogger would say, Rove forgets about the millions of Americans both on the left and the right who believe they've been conned. 

Bush's approval ratings are not the lowest in the history of presidents because the American people believe him to be the most forthright or the most competent. 
 
Karl Rove himself has even been subpoenaed twice by judiciary committees because of his inability to be forthright. 
 
It would be in America's best interest that it be investigated whether or not any of this administration's deceptions have been criminal in nature. Impeachment proceedings would be pointless as all of the players who may have knowingly led this country into an unjustified, ill-conceived war could then maybe escape unscathed.

But investigations and trials of them under the next administration might do well to get this country back on course as to exactly what powers the president and his operatives are allowed to wield. 
 
The most valuable thing lost during the Bush years was the concept that government officials, including the president, are servants of the people--not masters of them. Bush unilaterally made the decision to go to war after giving the public only half of a puzzle, after refusing to give us the whole story.

But the crime lies not in what he and his cronies didn't do, but in what they did. 
 
And according to excerpts from McClellan's book, they did a lot of questionable activities - perhaps even criminal ones. 
 
It will be interesting to see the Republicans, specifically Bush's Republicans, rev up the smear machine. They will cite either money as McClellan's motives and/or even the idea that he is trying to bolster his own image and status in the public's eye. 
 
The first charge concerning money would seem more fitting for Dick Cheney, considering all of his financial gains from Halliburton, and the second charge just seems illogical. 
 
If anything, McClellan's book seems to be the effort not of a man trying to bolster his image, but rather trying to repair it. As press secretary, he was made to go out in front of the public time and time again to defend only half-truths and distorted information. He, as well as the American people, was not made fully aware of the deceptions if the recently published excerpts of his book are to be believed. 
 
They made a fool of him. They made fools of us all. 
 
But over the next couple of days we will be gifted a show of the Bush administration and its mouthpieces discrediting McClellan, committing ad hominem attacks on the guy-- they'll shoot the messenger. They want us to forget to look at the potential truth of what he alleges. 
 
Hopefully, both the American people and as well as Congress have grown a little more sophisticated since the beginning of the Iraq War. Hopefully, everyone is just a little more interested in sitting at the table and piecing together the purposefully half-filled puzzle - the one that Bush's administration more than five years ago shoved into our faces, while shrugging its shoulders dismissively and going, in the immortal words of Dick Cheney, "So?" 
 

 

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HOW TO SAY?

Lord, how to say that which I feel?
My words seem all inadequate:
Corporate grief no one may heal
But single lies eradicate.

Untruth appears so deeply rooted
Within the souls of those who harm
It cannot be at all refuted
Save lie by lie the false disarm.

The task too great for any man
Then by my truth I stand or fall:
This war, and facets of one plan
Dishonest, I dishonest call.

It is immoral, from the start,
Based on deception, spurred by greed
So rooted in the human heart
Fools care not whither they proceed.

It was a sin against the peace,
Defilement of my Lord the Christ,
But as the Almighty always sees
He knows the way are lies devised.

I can do little, Lord, but strive
In my imperfect words, to say
That wars excuse no man alive
Committing murder by the way.

It is indecent, what was done,
And utterly I disapprove:
Crimes against peace are not much fun,
Collective guilt nor none remove.

Lord, how to say that which I feel?
It is the grief of simple man.
I live, and watch my brethren steal
Enforced on travesty no ban.

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