CRIME AND PUNISHMENT... OR NO PUNISHMENT AT ALL

Quick, fair trials, followed by public firing squads, aren't likely for this batch of war criminals and traitors. The people who make the kinds of political decisions that would lead to that are... well, in short, the same people who were guilty or at least complicit in the crimes. If Cheney were found guilty and handed a blindfold and last cigarette, the whole world would rejoice, but Steny Hoyer might have reason to wonder what his punishment would be.

Last night Keith Olbermann discussed the idea-- since Nancy Pelosi and her crew have decided to thwart the constitutional remedy of impeachment (a remedy that has never in American history been more appropriate than now)-- with Richard Clarke. Even with the Senate Intelligence Committee-- and let's face it, more than half the members of that body were at least accessories to the systemic criminality of the Regime (and I'm not just talking about the Republican members by any means)-- have finally determined that Bush lied us into attacking Iraq by twisting and misusing intelligence. Clarke:

Well, there may be some other kind of remedy. There may be some sort of truth and reconciliation commission process that’s been tried in other countries, South Africa, Salvador and what not, where if you come forward and admit that you were in error or admit that you lied, admit that you did something, then you’re forgiven. Otherwise, you are censured in some way.

Now, I just don’t think we can let these people back into polite society and give them jobs on university boards and corporate boards and just let them pretend that nothing ever happened, when there are 4,000 Americans dead and 25,000 Americans grievously wounded, and they’ll carry those wounds and suffer all the rest of their lives.

I don't think Bush and Cheney give a damn about university boards or even, despite John Cusack's brilliant War, Inc., corporate boards. They have stolen generational wealth-- not millions or hundreds of millions, but billions and billions of dollars-- and nothing short of confiscation will phase either of them. Just like nothing short of blindfolds and last cigarettes will ever satisfy me-- or justice.

Think Progress has put together a brilliant report called "The Architects of War: Where Are They Now?," and you will notice that neither Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, Elliot Abrams, Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Mitch Daniels, Irving Libby (aka "Scooter") nor Stephen Hadley, let alone Bush and Cheney, are awaiting trials. They and dozens more-- including half the U.S. Senate, on both sides of the aisle-- should be.

Many, though by no means all, of the senators who aided and abetted Bush and Cheney have now, like Hillary Clinton, made the claim that they were lied to, and if they knew then what they came to learn, they would have never, never have been sucked into Bush's nefarious scheme. What a crock! Almost half the Senate Democrats did know and loudly warned their colleagues, and more than half the House Democrats had it all figured out and voted against Bush's rush to war. But even in September 2006, with the Regime still brandishing their "red scare" and smear tactics against spineless Vichy Democrats, only one third of the Senate was willing to oppose the Bush Regime on their torture agenda. Although Clinton and Reid had learned their lesson and opposed torture, every single Republican aside from Olympia Snowe (who ducked the vote) and Lincoln Chafee voted with the Regime to allow torture.

And the Democrats who should be dragged before the bar of justice and tried as criminals and traitors along with the despicable likes of Mitch McConnell, John W. McCain, Gordon Smith, Joe Lieberman, James Inhofe, John Cornyn, Susan Collins, Norm Coleman, Elizabeth Dole, Ted Stevens, Lamar Alexander, John Sununu and Lindsey Graham? Well, there were quite a few Democrats who still didn't know then what they know now-- and some still don't know it even now!-- including Mary Landrieu (LA), Jay "Retroactive Immunity" Rockefeller (WV), Tom Carper (DE), Mark Pryor (AR), Tim Johnson (SD) and both the treacherous Nelson girls (FL and NE)... to name some of the worst of the Vichyssoise.

Our political class, or at least much of it, has let us down in the worst possible way. There are no Republicans who deserve reelection, not a single one. Many Democrats do, and many do not. Be careful in November not to vote for potential war criminals, particularly not the unreconstructed ones like Mark Pryor (AR) or Mary Landrieu (LA) in the Senate or John Barrow (GA), Eliot Engel (NY), Gene Taylor (MS), Tim Holden (PA), Collin Peterson (MN), Jim Marshall (GA), Steven Rothman (NJ), Jim Matheson (UT), Allen Boyd (FL), Shelley Berkley (NV), Steve Israel (NY), Mike Ross (AR), Adam Smith (WA), Vic Snyder (AR), Solomon Ortiz (TX), Chet Edwards (TX) and Ike Skelton (MO), to name a few, in the House.


UPDATE: STEVE ROTHMAN (D-NJ)

I just goy back from DC and found the comment from Anonymous asking why Steve Rothman was included in this list of war supporting Democrats. Rothman has a dismal overall Iraq War score of 71.43, one of the lowest for any Democrat in the Northeast. Before Pelosi became Speaker, he routinely voted with the Republicans to keep the war going. Out of the 44 roll calls on Iraq before 2006, Rothman voted with the Republicans 18 times. the chart show the first 8 Iraq roll call votes in the House. Column 1 was Rothman's vote; column two was the Democratic position; and column three was the fate of the Democratic position (8 losses-- thanks, in part, to traitors like Rothman. That's why.

Click to see how Steve Rothman has acted as a rubber stamp for Bush