Some people think that the worst kind of government lawsuit is one in which office-holders, in pursuit of their duty, are accused of criminal malfeasance by political adversaries. In the 80s, Mark Helpern, the author and social observer, famously characterized it as "the criminalization of policy differences."
The New York Times' Paul Krugman, a sincere admirer of his own righteousness, is of a different frame of mind, at least when the targets are Republicans. His column ("Forgive and Forget?") in the Friday edition is number one on the paper's most-emailed list of articles, so there must be some resonance for his protest that President-Elect Obama has "no right" to foreclose such legal pursuit.
Krugman, and some in Congress, especially want the new president to open criminal investigations into the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism. He is furious about "illegal wiretapping" to find terrorists, even though the courts seem to be siding with the outgoing Bush Administration that certain telephone and cyber-spying is constitutional, and the incoming Obama Administration shows little interest in losing such options.
In Krugman's telling--and in the feverish hallucinations of the Left--the Bush years were unusually rife with scandals. But any comparison with previous Administrations shows otherwise. There have been a number of independent panels that showed that the Bush Administration did not intentionally mislead the nation about WMDs or encourage such fiascos as the Abu Graib cruelties. Almost all of the Bush scandals were about process questions (the Libby case, notoriously) or were simply manufactured by the likes of The Times for political effect and had no other significance whatever.
But, maybe there really should be a Federal case made of the way the U.S. responded to 9/11, conducted the war on terrorism and the specific war in Iraq. Let it all come out. But let all sides air their grievances and suspicions, not just the Torquemadas of The Times. Some of those grievances might be aimed at The New York Times itself, as it happens. Many would be aimed at liberals in Congress.
The new president seems more prudent about this topic than his constant-adviser, Paul Krugman. Actual responsibility has that effect sometimes.
