How to treat George W. Bush, ex-president

last updated 8 January 2015

When it comes to the possible crimes of the Bush administration, said Paul Krugman in The New York Times, President-elect Barack Obama seems ready to forgive and forget. "I'm sorry," but if there is no inquest into the torture, illegal wiretapping, and other excesses of the Bush years, "this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don't face any consequences if they abuse their power."

"There is obviously no limit to the political left's bloodlust for all things George W. Bush," said David Limbaugh in Townhall.com. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers just released a trumped up report calling for Obama's administration to investigate Bush's alleged abuses. If Obama is as "levelheaded and pragmatic" as his supporters say, "he'll have his work cut out for him dealing with these avengers on his side of the ideological spectrum."

"Obama is not going to waste his political capital," said Tony Campbell in The Moderate Voice, "and the good will he has worked to get on both sides of the aisle, on an ex-presidential witch hunt that will drain all of the life out his administration for at least two years." You don't have to forgive Bush to recognize that letting him retire peacefully is the best way "help the country to forget the last eight years as expeditiously as possible."