Addington

How Will A Truth Commission Work? — Dahlia states the obvious:It's sweet and fanciful to think that with a grant of immunity and a hot cup of chai, Bush-administration officials who have scoffed at congressional subpoenas and court dates will sit down and unburden themselves to a truth commission about their role in the U.S. attorney firings.I do think that a Truth Commission remains our best bet. But it cannot be set up as a way to give Bush officials legal immunity for war crimes. It must be the preliminary. And Dahlia seems to me too willing to believe that we already know most of it. With... [Tags: addington, best bet, bush administration officials, chai, cheney]

Arianna Huffington: Sunday Roundup — This week was filled with talk of presidential pardons. Remember Marc Rich? He's baaaack -- with his pardon arising as a possible obstacle to Eric Holder's confirmation. Meanwhile, Bush has received 658 pardon applications in the last 13 months, including requests from Michael Milken, Marion Jones, and "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh. Conrad Black wants in on the pardon party; so does Scooter Libby (apparently the commutation just wasn't enough). Bush has been very tightfisted with pardons, granting fewer than any modern president. But speculation is rampant that he might be willing to preemptively pardon the main players on his... [Tags: addington, american taliban, arianna huffington, cheney, commutation]

McCarthy Concedes — When even the Cheney-Addington fan writes the following, you have some idea of just how dumb and counter-productive Bush's detainee policy has been: It seems pretty clear that the Bush administration did not help matters here.  Nearly seven years ago, the President publicly claimed the Algerians were planning a bomb attack on the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo.  Last month, however, the Justice Department suddenly informed the Court that it was no longer relying on that information.  We've seen this sort of thing happen too many times over the last seven years, and the effect can only be to reduce the... [Tags: addington, algerians, bomb attack, bush administration, bush and cheney]

As I find myself barely able to function this weekend, I did manage to go for a bike ride, walk the dogs, and catch up on a few Netflix projects (finishing off John Adams, "The Savages", the rest of Season 11 of The Simpsons). What is this I'm feeling? Yes, it's clouded with Prop 8 grief. But it isn't euphoria. I haven't felt that since O-Day. It isn't redemption: I don't expect that from politics. I realize what I'm feeling is relief. What I wrote last Monday was not meant casually. Knowing that the Bush-Cheney-Addington axis will be forced... [Tags: addington, axis, blessings, bush cheney, central government]

Inside Cheney's Head — Scott Horton interviews Bart Gellman, author of Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency. One snippet: A lot of critics call Cheney and Addington contemptuous of the Constitution. I think that’s completely wrong–a cartoon that misses something important, because it fails to take them seriously. The vice president has an unyielding conviction, to which he has devoted substantial thought, about what the Constitution means. He occupies an extreme position in the usual separation-of-powers debate, sometimes beginning with widely accepted tenets but carrying them beyond the bounds of accepted scholarship. In his own frame of reference, the Constitution not only permits but compels... [Tags: addington, bart, cheney vice presidency, citizenry, commander in chief]

Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds — At the Los Angeles Times, Tim Rutten writes: The putsch that imperiled America According to an article by New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer in the latest New York Review of Books,"President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and a small handful of trusted advisors sought and obtained dubious legal opinions [on national security] enabling them to circumvent American laws and traditions." She details how they used these legal opinions to dramatically expand executive power. ... The putschists were driven by ideology, not partisanship, Rutten says. Which is why some Republicans in the administration - including some very conservative ones -... [Tags: addington, dick cheney, early birds, executive power, fanaticism]