I gotta give credit to Willie Geist for coming up with this angle.
This morning on Morning Joe they were interviewing someone from the Politico concerning the photos that the president has decided not to release.
He asked if the idea might have been to protect democratic pols who would have had these photos “hung around their necks”.
You know there are several angles to look at this. It could be considered the president’s “Sister Souljia” moment, turning from the left.
It could be his “Errol Flynn Trial” Errol Flynn Trial: 1943 – “j.b.” And “s.q.q.”, Suggestions For Further Reading on the subjectmoment as Monica Crowley maintained on O’Reilly last night, the theory being now people will imagine the worst.
Most people think that its a question of following the advice of the generals. The thought being that now the war is now owned by him is isn’t going to lose it.
The political angle didn’t occur to me and I’m ashamed of it, particularly with the excellent post by Legal Insurrection:
This presents a problem mostly for Democrats. Republicans who were briefed on the interrogation methods at least will be consistent, for the most part, in maintaining that the methods were lawful and useful. No Republican is going to be harmed politically by the revelations because most Americans support these methods against people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. If leaks of a Justice Department report are to be believed, there will be no prosecutions. Republicans are safe politically and legally.
For Democrats, however, the damage could be significant. Nancy Pelosi already has lost a great deal of credibility from her changing stories. Dozens of other Democrats, including such senior Senators as Jay Rockefeller, apparently also were briefed on the interrogation methods and either were silent, approved, or encouraged the policy.
The irony is that a full blow investigation and hearings will turn mostly on what the Democrats knew, and when they knew it. The Republicans mostly couldn’t care less if they were “blamed” for keeping the country safe even if it necessitated waterboarding the mastermind of 9/11 to prevent further attacks. When faced with sacrificing a city versus using harsh interrogation methods, most voters would opt for harsh interrogation.
Keith Olberman, Chris Matthews, et/al not withstanding people who live here actually Like America and dislike having to choose between burning to death or jumping 100 stories to become street pizza. The Air force one debacle showed that no matter how they vote people know what the score is as thousands fled for their lives. This is not something you want to be on the wrong side of.
There is a story of Ronald Reagan meeting with European leaders in the 80 hearing them privately urge him to stand up to the soviets and deploy missiles while telling him they would publicly condemn him for political reasons.
Don’t think for one moment that high level people in congress didn’t make that request. The president has the approval ratings to withstand the hit, congress can’t, and believe that he made this move for their sake he WILL collect a chit for it.
I say the right thing is almost always the smart thing in the long run. President Obama did the right thing and it will turn out to be the smart thing in the end.
Update: Et Tu Chris Matthews?
Update 2: added the DUmmie Funnies link above, between them and Andrew Sullivan it looks like they are all learning about feeding the dog and liberal pets.
Update 3: via Jules Crittenden David Ignatious votes Souljia and has a full round up.
