A perfect opportunity to "MOVEON" otherwise, bypartisan efforts are horseshit, and it's just going to be 4 years of trench warfare

Congressional Democrats prepare to move forward with investigations of the Bush administration

"The Bush administration overstepped in its exertion of executive privilege, and may very well try to continue to shield information from the American people after it leaves office," said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, who sits on two committees, Judiciary and Intelligence, that are examining aspects of Mr. Bush's policies.

Topics of open investigations include the harsh interrogation of detainees, the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, secret legal memorandums from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and the role of the former White House aides Karl Rove and Harriet E. Miers in the firing of federal prosecutors.

Mr. Bush has used his executive powers to block Congressional requests for executive branch documents and testimony from former aides. But investigators hope that the Obama administration will open the filing cabinets and withdraw assertions of executive privilege that Bush officials have invoked to keep from testifying.

"I intend to ensure that our outstanding subpoenas and document requests relating to the U.S. attorneys matter are enforced," said Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "I am hopeful that progress can be made with the coming of the new administration."

Also, two advocacy groups, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First, have prepared detailed reports for the new administration calling for criminal investigations into accusations of abuse of detainees.

Hello out there, Thomas Jefferson would have scoffed at people whose murder of Americans, and desire to convert and murder the rest for RELIGION, was the cause for them to claim the rights and protections of Americans. Hamilton would not even give such people the recognition of attention.Franklin would have ridiculed them as the fools they are. In fact such human rights organizations would do well to consider that if we breed the men and women who seek to serve, and do so, and then risk their lives to save ours, most Americans would probably wish to see such people serve us by eliminating these murderers OVER THERE and do away with any consideration of rights. After all, IT IS WAR. Now you wish to investigate for politically motivated revenge and grandstanding? There will be violence at the end of all this, HERE. In our cities and towns. Waxman, Dingell, Conyers, et al would well to consider the fates of the leaders of the Optimates and those 'for the people' in an earlier republic. They should look to the result of that as well. They are ALL on the same path.

It is not clear, though, how a President Barack Obama will handle such requests. Legal specialists said the pressure to investigate the Bush years would raise tough political and legal questions.

Because every president eventually leaves office, incoming chief executives have an incentive to quash investigations into their predecessor's tenure. Mr. Bush used executive privilege for the first time in 2001, to block a subpoena by Congressional Republicans investigating the Clinton administration.

In addition, Mr. Obama has expressed worries about too many investigations. In April, he told The Philadelphia Daily News that people needed to distinguish "between really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity."

"If crimes have been committed, they should be investigated," Mr. Obama said, but added, "I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt, because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve."