Getting away with ...

MANIFESTO

As one who was disgusted by Gerald Ford's pardon of Tricky Dick in 1974, I can certainly say that I want the Bushies to pay for the high crimes and misdemeanors they've been guilty of for the last seven plus years.

Alas, once again, it looks like I won't be satisfied.

Democrats on the U.S. Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees sent a letter to the White House last week asking for an accounting of steps the administration plans to take to preserve documents and submit them to the National Archives and Records Administration once President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney leave office.

To which I say, good luck, especially given this state of affairs:

When a Congressional committee subpoenaed Harry S. Truman in 1953, nearly a year after he left office, he made a startling claim: Even though he was no longer president, the Constitution still empowered him to block subpoenas.

"If the doctrine of separation of powers and the independence of the presidency is to have any validity at all, it must be equally applicable to a president after his term of office has expired," Truman wrote to the committee.

Congress backed down, establishing a precedent suggesting that former presidents wield lingering powers to keep matters from their administration secret. Now, as Congressional Democrats prepare to move forward with investigations of the Bush administration, they wonder whether that claim may be invoked again.

"The Bush administration overstepped in its exertion of executive privilege, and may very well try to continue to shield information from the American people after it leaves office," said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, who sits on two committees, Judiciary and Intelligence, that are examining aspects of Mr. Bush’s policies.

Screw justice: It's vengeance I want for all the people who lost their jobs, who became sick as a result of lax environmental regulations, and, especially, for those who were imprisoned unjustly.

Nevertheless, it's a wish that, as in 1974, I don't think will be fulfilled.