[CitizensTruth] ARTICLE-Republican senators resort to extortion

[Walterb306 at cs.com]

All,

FYI,

Beverley

Friday, January 23, 2009

http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2009/01/republican-senators-resort-to-exto
rtion.html

Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate

Republican Senators resort to extortion on Holder nomination 
In an effort to derail the nomination of Attorney General-designate Eric 
Holder, it seems Senate Republicans are now resorting to extortion. They'll 
confirm Holder if he promises not to prosecute any Bush Administration officials for 
any involvement in acts of torture, according to Senator Sheldon 
Whitehouse(D-RI).
Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have asked Eric Holder to make a 
commitment, before he is even confirmed, that he will not prosecute any Bush 
Administration officials for their involvement in acts of torture during the last 
administration.

Anyone familiar with the criminal justice system - especially those with 
experience as prosecutors or judges - should know that a prosecutor should make no 
determination about who to prosecute before he or she has all the facts, and 
particularly not in response to legislative pressure.
Senator Whitehouse makes a good point about the separation of powers. It 
isn't for the legislative branch to hold up executive branch appointments, in 
order to extract promises from those appointees, especially with regard to 
potential future prosecutions. But it's much more than that.

I understand that President Obama wants to get beyond the partisan divisions 
and rancor and look to America's future. That's all good and well, but the 
United States was founded on the rule of law. You often hear that "we are a 
nation of laws, not men." If the rule of law were not important, what would 
separate our nation from countries like Myanmar (Burma) or North Korea?

If Eric Holder, or any other Obama appointee subject to confirmation by the 
Senate, were to agree not to investigate alleged wrongdoing Bush Administration 
officials and forward alleged crimes for potential prosecution, it would be 
an egregious abdication of responsibility, not to mention an act of 
questionable legal ethics. It would say to future generations that at a time when the 
Bush Administration felt it was above the law, Democrats did nothing but stand 
idly by and let it happen.

And then we'd be no different than them 

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