Leahy calls for truth commission

Doesn't Leahy have any real work to do? Will the "truth" commission also investigate intelligence from the Clinton administration that indicated WMDs in Iraq?

i think the American Public would be better served by doing tax audits of every elected and appointed official of both parties. I'd find the results of that to be very enlightening.

It is unlikely that either prosecution or investigation will take place. After all, neither the House nor the Senate had the stomach to impeach Cheney, let alone Bush. However, I applaud Senator Leahy for the proposal. At least it puts the issue on the table and it provides us with a way to find out who is for it and who is not.

Please tell me you are kidding. Is the Boston Globe and Senator Leahy actually likening the Bush Administration to South Africa during the Apartheid era?

Criticize President Bush to your heart's content. But comparing his Administration to that of a regime that deliberately mistreated the majority of their populace demonstrates a profound ignorance of how an authoritarian regime truly abuses power.

"Leahy said the primary goal of the commission would be to learn the truth rather than prosecute former officials. "I'm doing this not to humiliate people or punish people but to get the truth out," he said."

Learn the truth! I'm all for it. I'm also for looking forward to 2012 when we can investigate the Obama debacle and "learn the truth" there too.

So, we had a so-called administration, forced into place by most-likely fradulent elections, that tortured, lied, stole, sold most of the free world to China, incurred the worst economical damage in a century (and we're still giving them money!), and avoided almost all scrutiny by an impotent congress and a paralyzed nation wrought by a very precisely induced terror-state, and we're just gonna do a truth and reconciliation commission? No wonder Bush can wear only a stupid-looking smile and Cheney can squeeze out a grimace or two, just to look "slightly evil".... Problem with the democrats and the follow-up here is that it is being just way, way too nice --- the scoundrels? They just love it..... The victims? Debt, paralysis, fear, tortured, and/or dead. Perhaps the accountability really will never happen. Nah, no time. Too much trouble... Wouldn't want to offend the GOP, would we? Or the Christian-wrong-right.... Let's just let it go... We don't really want to know what's under the rug, do we? U.S. got sold out by Cheney-Bush. Wonder if we can buy it back? Not until we know the truth!!!!!!

"Give 'em a fair trial and then hang 'em"

Attempting to find truth and integrity in the Bush-Cheney administation is a waste of time and government funds. There is nothing to find. It does not exist.

Attempting to find truth and ethics in the Bush-Cheney administration is a waste of government funds. Truth and integrity did not exist in the Bush-Cheney Administration. It was based upon mendacity.

Senator Leahy,

Where were you when the Bush admin was doing all this? When people were renditioned, held without habeas corpus, wiretapped on, etc? Too many people have died, had their and their families lives ruined for you to be asking "What happened?" now.

What about Bill Clinton era abuses? He lied about Monika Levinsky and then tried to cover up (wag the dog?) his extra marital affairs with more lies about Kosovo, bombed Serbian allies from WW1 and WW2, causing a humanitarian catastrophe, and allied with KLA, Albanian terrorists and heroin dealers, from White House' list of terrorist organization.

c'mon people - do you really think the Obama administration is any less corrupt? I'm not a fan of Bush, but you have to remember that we are dealing with politicians here - they buy votes, steal elections and are influenced by lobbyists every day. Nobody is above reproach here - all this kind of investigation would do is waste more money to tell us something we already know...what's the point? Let's move forward and work to make this country better instead of focusing on the past.

What an idiot. Even the crazy left of Vermont should know better than to elect this moron.

Liberals better hope to God an American city is never hit under Barry Obama’s watch, it could splinter the Republic and break away states. James Madison stated in his writings that very Democracy ends up murdering itself.

How about Patrick Leahy does his sworn duty and find out why the Department of Veteran’s affairs has an 800 thousand claims backlog for our fighting Warriors.

Probably because he is a Liberal who has never shouldered a weapon in defense of our Republic!

Liberal Pigs…………….

Yes! You had better learn every thing he did that kept us safe for so many years. Because once you Idiots weaken national security to the point when we are sitting ducks again, you are going to need that knowledge.

You Libs want to cancel the "American made" F22 Raptor program that would give us jobs and keep us safe. And with the same stroke of the pen you spend millions for other countries to get free abortions! And A.C.O.R.N. so they can perfect election fraud.

I fear that naught will come of such an investigation -- no trial -- nothing. Bush and Cheney et al will get off completely.
All goes to show you that if you have enough power and money you can get away with anything....
Sigh.

Mr. Leahy is acting as a detestable opportunist. Liberal or whatever political stripe that he claims to wear, the purpose of his proposal is grandstanding. He should pray that he is never called upon to make the hard decisions President Clinton set his successor up for in the fall of 2001. Shame on you Mr. Leahy.

"South Africa used one to try to get past apartheid after the end of white-minority rule.
Now, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont is proposing one to sift through all the wreckage of the Bush administration."

Nothing quite like unbiased journalism... has this paper officially been sold to the DNC yet?

Someone should start a petition that requires there be a "truth" commission after any public office holder leaves office.

It is 2009 now, how come Congress is keeping an eye on the current administration?

For a start, the census should not be moved the white house and allow the white house to control the numbers used for redistricting.

An investigation into the truth about how our law makers permitted the US to end up in such a catastrophic economic and financial mess is what needs to be addressed. It seems Leahy is OK wasting money the US governement doesn't have on something the government least needs. But maybe he thinks this will help stimulate the economy.

Bush didn't keep us safe for so many years you moron. 9/11 happened on his watch. He ignored the warnings about it, and 3000 Americans died. Then, he deliberately fabricated and twisted and cherry picked intelligence, resulting in 4000 more dead Americans and god knows how many Iraqi's. In the process, he dallied around on vacation while Katrina killed New Orleans, destroyed the economy, trampled all over the constitution, destroyed all of our soft power and good will across the world, willfully ignored the overwhelming scientific evidence supporting climate change, accused any who doubted him of treason, and then went AWOL for the last 4 months of his term. Thank god for that last.

You hyper Republican partisan idiots can make straw man arguments all day (look at Clinton! Obama will suck too!!) or you can suck it up and accept the fact that your party is bereft of wisdom and ideas. I haven't seen an intelligent post by a Republican in about six years. The truth is, your party blew it-BIG TIME. Bush as a president was abysmal. History is already judging him as the worst president we've had. McCain/Palin was a joke of a ticket. You propagate talking points, dogma, and ideology in favor of sense and reason. Keep it up! Keep attacking Obama when his approval ratings are soaring. Keep fighting the stimulus plan while EVERY business in the country applauds it. Take another nail for your coffin!

Oh and sferguson? Whatever backward sty you squat into and holler "Home!"...go ahead and take it and splinter off from the Union. You treasonous, unpatriotic secessionist. Take your mouth-breathing non-tax paying rural backwards state and split off. Us blue states are tired of paying your bills. You know why the economy in your state sucks so much? Because you and your fellow "rural Americans, real Americans" are proud of their hick ignorance. You believe in magic and not realty...go ahead, buy a textbook on ID, swallow the load that supply side economics works, and vote for the TRUE elitists who have been spinning your jobs off to China for the last decade.

Leahy is nuts. Totally serious. Take it from someone who twice worked in the Senate down in D.C. He is certifiable, and Vermont should stop sending him back. Losing his marbles.

Oh Yes! Yes! let's investigate the GOP. After all they are nothing more than liars, cheats and they all got their money given to them on a silver platter, right? Seems to me more money was raised for Obama than John McCain and we all know where that money came from and it wasn't from the average guy/girl. The point is Democrats are not above reproach yet they continue to advertise themselves as such. If the Democrats are looking for dog dirt then they need go no further than their own backyard. Here's an idea, let's take the millions that will be spent on an investigation and use it to create some jobs, which will create consumers and taxpayers. Duh! No brainer there.

I think Leahy needs to take a bath with a plugged in toaster.

This scumbag leahy wants to put GREAT AMERICANS on trial who protected our country from islamic savages who murdered 3000 of our fellow citizens on 9/11/01. He is truly disgrace to our great country And when the next islamic terrorist attack comes and it is and maybe 10,000,s are dead its lowlife scumbags such as leahy who are responsible. He should be put on trial for treason and assisting the enemy(islam) during a time of war

Senator Leahy is a good man, and the many crimes of the Bush Administration should be addressed and the scoundrels prosecuted.

Reading these comments, which for the most part are nasty and not constructive, makes me feel sad. I wonder whether any were written by a woman. I'd really like to know. My guess: so far I'm the only female who has written a comment. My view of Senator Leahy's proposal is that he is trying to help educate voters about what good government should be investigating what went wrong in the previous administration without calling for punishing the wrong doers, as a vocal contingent of Americans believe is necessary.

Please Sen. Leakey, please convince the corrupt, influence-peddling Senate Pres. Harry Reid to approve formation of a senate committee to investigate the Bush Administration.

What will we find out?

That you were asleep at the wheel when all of what you discover occurred. That you did not have the courage to conduct an investigation while Bush was President. That the Democrat Party is part of the problem not part of the solution.

Please do it so that Americans will reject the Democrat Party majority in the 2010 elections.

"his scumbag leahy wants to put GREAT AMERICANS on trial who protected our country from islamic savages who murdered 3000 of our fellow citizens on 9/11/01."

I don't know what racist, facist state you are from Sir, but it is not any part of the USA I recognize. Don't cloak your bigotry and partisanship between patriotism. Shame on you. History will judge this as a black era in American history, and anyone who condones it is no good American in my book.

Aaron Goldstein should be reminded that Israel supported South Africa's apartheid. "We created the South African arms industry," says Liel who headed the Israeli foreign ministry's South Africa desk in the 80s. Tutu stated, "In my view, the Reagan administration's support and collaboration with it (apartheid) is immoral, evil and totally un-Christian.
America is sustained as a nation of laws only if the people who deliberately violated the law by extremist ideology or very poor judgment are prosecuted. If President Obama and Attorney General Holder allow the Bush administration to escape accountability for their crimes, future extremist or incompetent leaders will feel that they can break the law, assault our Constitutional freedoms, involve us in conflicts based on lies with impunity.

"...sift through all the wreckage of the Bush Administration."

How can this be posted? Where are the editors? Do we have any standards anymore in America? I know this kind of article isn't meant to exemplify top journalism, but it would be nice if it did.

There is a quote to the effect that "those who don't learn from history are likely to repeat its mistakes," or words to that effect. Let us learn from history. Let us systematically learn from history through a transparent and well-weighed process.

As long as we are going to shed some light, let's do it on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and how Barney Frank blocked the Bush Administration from regulating those two organizations. Then let's shed some light on Timothy Geithner and his tax ignorance. Then what I really want to know is how much Soros profited from crashing the economy with the Sandlers. And by all means let's find out how Acorn stole Ohio and and Wisconsin. And to finish this once and for all let's see how these old fools like term limits to curb the corruption of the esteemed congress..We could also spend some time on media bias in the election process.

I fully support the effort to reveal and promulgate the "truth" about the Bush presidency. Although I think there were legitimate reasons to impeach Bush during his presidency (failing to protect us on 9/11, highjacking the government and lying to the public for war in Iraq, the Scooter Libby leak, etc.) but the truth now needs to be known so we can repair the damage, learn our lessons, and move forward. We are best served to forget W. and let him waste his days in his family's lavish properties, but this nation needs to know the truth to help our recovery process. When we make mistakes, we need to honestly account for them and reflect on how we can prevent similar mistakes in the future. It amazes me that the most basic and common sensical human behaviors are completely ignored at the national and international levels. We owe it to ourselves and the rest of the world to admit any worngdoings and thenenact policies and set precedents that will eradicate the crud of the past and

Many brave people, including mine, fought, sacrificed and died for our cherished Constitutional First Amendment freedoms. Anyone too fragile for those freedoms should find another country. Bon Voyage!

Not a minute too soon, and for the following reasons:
1. If we don’t learn about the misdeeds, we are bound to repeat them.
2. Too many throughout our country have suffered due to misdeeds at government offices, including atrocities committed at the DOJ which adversely affected the lives of many.
3. If we don’t identify the criminals and root them out from our government, they will continue with what they do best, criminal acts against the people.
Thousands have died, tens of thousands wounded, hundreds of thousands (families members, friends) were affected, and millions of us were blinded by lies. Do we want to repeat that? Do the right thing. Bring them to justice, now.

The Bush administration has left a legacy of graft, secrecy, and physical and moral destruction. But I second the views of an earlier poster. Why did the Congress allow it all to happen? The Congress passed the Partriot Act, the Congress "endorsed" the War in Iraq. The Congress passed retroactive legislation to legalize the wiretapping. The Congress did not timely force administrative officials to appear on Capital Hill and provide testimony UNDER OATH about true responsibility for 9/11 or other memorable debacles, such as the justice department scandal and the Libby affair. Bush and Co. had help, there is plenty of malfeasonce to go around. Perhaps a "Truth" commission is a good idea, but lets expand the search for the truth beyond those of the executive branch.

Finding the truth is admirable, but I dislike the fact that Leahy said his truth commission has no intention of prosecuting lawbreakers.

During his eight years in office Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and other thugs engaged in war crimes, violations of the United States Constitution, torture, kidnapping, illegal spying on American citizens, the leaking of classified information, the outing of a CIA covert operative, war profiteering, obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, destruction of evidence and other crimes. when the truth commission piles up more and more evidence of these crimes, what will they do with them? If there's no prosecution of the criminals who committed these acts then aren't we saying that certain people in America are above the law?

I am grateful to be in this conversation. Not to be having a conversation about torture of captives, that seems to have happen with a certainty, is akin to not talking about an incest-rape in a dysfunctional family. The more we talk about the truth of what happened, the more that comes out of the closet, the more that comes forward and out of "it is a secret" the more functional governance and life will be in the USA.

President Bush did abuse his power domestically and abroad and I welcome Senator Leahy’s initiative. Future commissions by every incoming administration would in fact be a wonderful thing! They would have both a cleansing effect and a deterrent effect, and above all they would do some justice to the victims as the exposition of the sex scandals in the Catholic Church did to its victims.

There are at least two types of individuals blogging on this: those who have skeletons in the closet and would feel threatened by the idea of any truth commission and the mere semblance of greater transparency throughout society; and those who don’t have skeletons in the closet and welcome greater transparency and integrity – or am I being simplistic. Those in the first group (if blogging), would most probably oppose the Leahy Commission, but those in the second group would most likely support it. I happen to strongly support it.

I think that it was Chief Justice Louis Brandeis who said that sunshine has a wonderful cleansing effect. Let some sun shine in on the abuse of power by the Bush administration and on every administration from now on, and let us make it part of the American ritual: a form of spiritual retreat whereby the nation recaptures its principles and its ideals.

When has Leahy ever told the truth. Give me a break, a Truth Commission. The Socialist have exactly what they wanted, a marxist leading them to the promise land . Unfortunately when they arrive they will be met by the same thugs they let go who in turn will rid them from the face of the earth. Can we move this process along faster?

Commission equals cover-up, nobody in Washington wants to expose the truth. I do have a theory I'd be interested in feedback about. Remember when Cheney admitted to torture publicly? This, plus all of the other obvious crimes-what was he thinking? He was sure he would get a pardon. But since Bush can't pardon himself he was not about to let the key operatives of this disaster not share in the blame. Bush could not stand being so unpopular and could only think he had been seriously misled by his puppet masters. Prosecution is the only way forward. Being pretty far down on the list, I think he would welcome it.

Any proposal which stirs so much rage and scorn from both right and left must have SOMETHING to recommend it! But seriously, folks, Bishop Tutu's Peace and Reconciliation Commission was one of the great inventions of the twentieth century. Senator Leahy's commission will let the sun shine in, fresh winds blow in the swamps. We need the wisdom of us all; "open source democracy" to get through this Great Turning . As Alice Walker wrote to Barack Obama the day after the election, "we must learn not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise." Let the sinless throw the first stone.

Who cares. Leahy is an idiot.

When the communist took over in Russia,China, Vietnam,Cuba or anywhere they had these type trials of thier political opponents. Senator Leahy wants to crush any descent of thier left wing agenda. This is an attempt to scare opposition to the left. I am an average individual that would stop by any means neccesary an attempt to arrest President Bush or VP Cheney. There are a whole lot of folks just like me.

Why waste time and money with a "Truth Commission?" So much as already been investigated, documented, and published about the illegal activities and corruption of the Bush/Cheney years. Billions of dollars have been thrown away to line the pockets of arms dealers and access to Iraqi oil for Bush's friends. Over 4,000 American soldiers have died because the USA invaded a country that had nothing to do with September 11. We have white collar crime because we have no accountability. No punishment. The Democrats have been such whimps. Bush/Cheney, etal should be held accountable for war crimes.

Yes, it is always enlightening to find out the truth. Go forward Senator Leahy and your commisssion.

Sen. Leahy Better investigate the abuses and torture that is being done to almost all American citizens all across this nation by spy satellite signals. It is a complete disgrace very most people don't know about. I am a victim tortured by my neighbors operating the satellite. Don J. Brown, 554, Rocktown Rd., Jefferson City, TN.

I personally think nothing we did in the way of so called torture can compare with what the middle east terrorist have done. Least we haven't cut anyone's head off with knives and filmed it..and yes i know the men incarcerated may be innocent and had nothing to do with that...who knows..and thats the problem, who knows. I just know we have not been attacked like 911 since then. So, let's stop being stupid and bowing to their heads of state and protect ourselves.