Welcome, that’s been my POV too but time will tell how well this strategy works for criminal indictments against BushCo. Obama is the coolest Poker player I’ve seen … and if you knew some of my relatives, you’d know that’s a big compliment. Starting with prosecution of the Lawyers is brilliant strategy, as you so clearly outlined.

i want this to ultimately be so big we can justify opening up all the other scandals – like the DOJ and stolen elections and stolen treasury and domestic wiretapping and on and on – will get exposed too. my biggest fear is that there is too much flash and thunder over torture that everyone will get the vapors and click their heels to get back to kansas, leaving all that detritus lying around just waiting for a revival.

stick around; it’s a great crew here (this particular thread showing not being at all typical).

but still, save your passions for bigger fish than the one you plan to slap him in the face with. we need your strong for that!

I love the image you created of a chum line, although I hate to think we’re just sharks and other predators in the water.

What’s more, the analogy can describe what happened in this thread; we have been smelling more and more blood in the water, and are getting quite itchy to put on a feeding frenzy, to the point that we are beginning to nip on each other.

And now back to following fish entrails in the increasingly turbulent waters…

I was arguing, of in all places a kayaking forum, with a pro torture person and they were crowing about Obama’s selective release of information. I countered that one would think his passive strategy of letting people take themselves down would be apparent by now, what with Clinton, McCain and the GOP Congress wreckage lying by the road side. But I still didn’t see this till after the fact and I am still not entirely sure this was the plan but I think, when we reflect back on it, the release of the memos will be seen as sheer political brilliance.

Obama couldn’t go after Bush and Cheney and the torture junta (politically speaking) without spiraling us further into partisan politics, at least further in where he/Dems is/are to blame. He couldn’t go after the little guy, the one who actually tortured KSM and AZ, I think too many people would side with them as people trying to protect us and just following orders (despite that defense being rebuked at Nuremberg) and see it on the mighty and powerful CYA at the expense of the folks in the trenches. So, release the memos that the middle men, the lawyers, wrote, okaying torture and hang them out to dry. Hell, we all hate lawyers anyway and these are the pond scum of that profession. Initially I thought this was a Clintonish move, (Bill, not Hil) in trying to appease everyone at the same time, give the lefties their red meat but at the same time not go after anyone that the GOP would be riled up to defend, and on the surface it seemed to give Bush an out, hey, it was the lawyers who said we could torture, right, first thing we do is kill all the lawyers.

Instead now what I think he was doing was laying a chum line. Legally and morally he could have gone after Bush but politically you can’t do that if the only backing you have is the PETA/ELF/ACORN/anti-war faction of the Democratic party (apologies for stereotyping). But if you drop some blood and chopped up fish heads in the water and wait things will happen.

I think he also understands the internet, blogosphere and corporate linkage of the MSM better than most politicians. Even the NYTimes is not going to try and take down an unpopular former President who broke our laws and treaties because they are part of a corporate media entity that eventually has ties to someone with ties to Kennebunkport.

No, Obama knew it would be the small feeders, (and I mean that only in reference to staff/budget size not quality of reporting) the bloggers and online political junkies who would pick up on this and begin to run with it, it then percolates upward from EW to wider circulation on Andrew Sullivan (how I got here) and TalkingPoints and Politico and at that point the MSM decides to go with it (probably because a lot of the hard work has already been done and its now salacious which sells ads which trumps relationships with Kennebunkport)

Now there are a lot of journalist and others digging, trying to be the next Woodward and Bernstein and revealing a stream of dirty deeds done in our name. With each one the pressure on the Bush administration members to CYA becomes greater and as we are seeing the accusations (and information) begin to fly. Subsequently, Joe and Jane Democrat and Joe and Jane Independent are beginning to get riled up at these accounts. Joe and Jane Republican are okay with torture but we know who they represent now. Cheney fired his best return salvo, the not whether it was legal but whether it was effective shot, and that petered out to nothing, there’s just too much steam behind the law breaking to change the narrative now.

As others have pointed out enough information is coming out now that we might just skip from independent investigation to trails. And Obama will come out looking clean, he (through DoJ) will be able to say ‘look, I just thought it was these lawyers who were the bad apples but in light of the information revealed since the release of the memos and by grassroots demand of 70%+ of the American public I have instructed DoJ to…’

Brilliant Mr. Obama, brilliant. Again.

is that what we get to see ???

gonna call my congresscritter an tell him “TOLD YOU SO” if it is