Forgive and Forget?

Paul Krugman's column in today's New York Times touched a nerve in me.

People here tell me that it is useless to fight against some politically connected people here that I think may have broken the law. This is Chester County; no matter what happens, if someone is indicted, even found guilty, in the long run the losers will be the people who “snitched” and the bad guys will ultimately win.

I am hoping for a different outcome.

The “free market economy” is completely out of control and in aircraft language a “flat spin” or “death spiral”. Only the President and government can pull it out of the “death spiral”. It may be a decade or more but the economy will come back.

I agree with Mr. Krugman that if the crimes of the Bush Administration go unpunished the United States will suffer. If the new president ignores the crimes of the Bush Administration the United States will be permanently damaged.

But it is not the President’s duty to prosecute former Bush officials; that will be the duty of Eric Holder.

It could be that the future of the United States of America is in Eric Holder’s hands.
Jim Pitcherella
________________________________________
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/opinion/16krugman.html?_r=1

January 16, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Forgive and Forget?
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”
I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power.
Let’s be clear what we’re talking about here. It’s not just torture and illegal wiretapping, whose perpetrators claim, however implausibly, that they were patriots acting to defend the nation’s security. The fact is that the Bush administration’s abuses extended from environmental policy to voting rights. And most of the abuses involved using the power of government to reward political friends and punish political enemies.


Jim Pitcherella

Every politician and law enforcement officer in Pennsylvania should read:
“POLICE, POLITICS. CORRUPTION ‘The mixture dangerous to freedom and justice” By Colonel Frank McKetta, Retired Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner