Meteor Blades is, of course, correct to urge Ixnay on Letting Bygones Be Bygones. A new Democratic administration with engorged Congressional majorities cannot let a well-intentioned desire to focus on the economy, the environment, health care, and foreign policy challenges get in the way of accountability for the crimes of the Bush administration. But that is what is likely to happen for a variety of reasons.
Congressional action is like a garden hose. It can only carry so much capacity at any given time. You have to feed a manageable amount of legislation into the system or it all breaks down. That means that Congress can handle three or four big things a year, but no more. And an Obama presidency is going to want to push through a universal health care plan, a green energy initiative, a banking/housing/financial sector reform bill, and some kind of tax reform bill. Where does that leave accountability?
Moreover, Obama is branding himself as a post-partisan politician. If elected, he will have a mandate to push the priorities he ran on in his campaign and the clout to get Republicans to cooperate on some of his priorities…so long as he doesn’t go on a crusade to expose every bit of corruption, crime, and hypocrisy of the Gingrich/Hastert/Bush era. Or…at least that is how the thinking goes inside the Beltway. Criminalizing politics is an invitation for payback…as if the Republicans would play nice in reciprocation.
Here’s the real hope. It is not the Democrats currently in Congress that will demand accountability. With the exception of some of the Class of ’06, the current Congress is complicit in the crimes of the Bush administration. They are too tarnished and institutionally timid after years of abuse in the minority to have the intestinal fortitude needed to look under all the rocks. Culturally, it is only the Democrats that won post-Iraq that have what it takes to expose the truth. The bigger the class of ’08 the more likely that they will force the leadership to do their bidding. Here’s a little reminder about the Watergate Babies (Class of 1974):