Torture, the economic collapse, the controversial firing of eight U.S. federal prosecutors, Vice President Dick Cheney’s secret energy task force: there’s no shortage of reasons to be scrutinizing the Bush Administration these days, and Congress is on the case on most of them. But from the Obama Administration’s point of view, there are equally compelling reasons not to get distracted by public trials that do little to further the President’s ambitious agenda of health care reform, the re-regulation of Wall St.
Tag Archives: democrats
How the Banks Plan to Limit Credit Card Protections
A popular president taking on a reviled industry should get what he wants, in principle, especially when he’s working with a sympathetic Congress. But it’s not so clear Barack Obama will be able to deliver on his promises of clamping down on credit card abuses, thanks to the banking industry’s experienced Washington lobbyists and their plans to limit proposed restrictions on their business.
Leahy wants to probe ‘chain of command’ on torture
An independent commission is needed to determine who authorized the use of abusive interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists, a leading advocate of such a panel said Sunday. “I want to know who was it who made the decisions that we will violate our own laws; we’ll violate our own treaties; we will even violate our own Constitution,” Sen
Commentary: Obama waffled on torture — and looks weak
Harman Says She’s the Victim in Wiretapping Controversy
Representative Jane Harman, under scrutiny for allegedly pledging in a 2005 phone call to try and help two former officials of an Israeli lobbying group accused of conspiring to pass classified information, told TIME on Tuesday that she is not worried about her fate. She frets far more, she claimed, about whether government agencies are listening to the conversations of private citizens. “My concern is not about me,” she said.