[T]he reason Obama is trying to look magnanimous in saying
he won't prosecute the CIA officials is because, obviously,
there is no way to prosecute an official who acted in good
faith. And even their lawyers, who simply offered an
opinion, you're going to [prosecute a] lawyer who simply
offered an opinion?
Krauthammer’s Take
NRO Staff
The Corner
From last night’s “All-Stars.”
On the possibility of prosecutions over the “torture memos:”
<<< The administration has put out stories about how Obama agonized about the release of the documents. Well, if you were born yesterday, you'll believe that.
You look at the political expediency and the political objective of these leaks. Obama was elected by running against George Bush, even though he wasn't on the ballot. He has been running against Bush in the first 100 days. He ran against Bush when he was in Europe and in Trinidad. He's making himself the foil against Bush.
And you would expect that has to end after a few months. Well, with the torture issue, it doesn't end. It's a perfect way to keep Bush alive as the permanent nemesis and foil of Obama.
And what he's doing is by strategically releasing a memo here, a memo there, he creates a firestorm, which is all predictable, which is not going to end up in prosecutions. It will end up in a truth commission.
You will have all kinds of Congressional hearings. You will have all kinds of commissions. You will have leaks. You will have televised, very dramatic testimony.
This issue, the Bush issue, will be alive for a long time.
And the reason Obama is trying to look magnanimous in saying he won't prosecute the CIA officials is because, obviously, there is no way to prosecute an official who acted in good faith. And even their lawyers, who simply offered an opinion, you're going to [prosecute a] lawyer who simply offered an opinion?
The issue, I think, of prosecutions, is a side issue here. The real issue is the hearings, the commissions, and the leaks that we will have in the future. >>>
On Geithner’s handling of the banks so far:
<<< It's a mess, and it's bizarre.
Last year the Secretary of the Treasury, Paulson, calls in the heads of the nine largest banks and says the government is now your partner. It usually happens that way in a banana republic with a gun on the table.
All the banks accept, of course.
And now the new Treasury Secretary is saying any bank who wants out, who wants to repay its loan, can't. I'll decide if I'm going to be a partner or not, or if you're going to un-partner yourself.
This is insane. Some of the banks are healthy, and they ought to be allowed to get out from under the government control.
And the ones that aren't healthy ought to be either nationalized or taken over the way small banks are done by the FDIC, broken up, healthy parts sold and the assets held by the government until they're worth something, the way it was done with the S&Ls in the 1990's. >>>
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