Posted on Sat, Jan. 17, 2009

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Governing well would be the best revenge

Among the many deeply nuanced decisions facing Barack Obama is how to deal with the loud chorus on his left demanding retribution from the departing administration.

After eight years of outrage and frustration over what they consider to be "the Bush gang's" multiple sins of omission and commission, many liberals in Congress and activist groups are rushing to see how many investigations and grand juries they can convene and how many criminal indictments they can conjure up.

Their bloodlust is understandable given what the Bush administration did or failed to do in the liberals' various areas of concern, such as the environment, the "war" on terror, the Iraq misadventure, spying on citizens, the virtually unregulated investment climate, indefinite detention of suspects, torture of prisoners, the arrogation of power to the executive branch, politicization of every detail of national government and, of course, routinely lying to the American people.

In each case, and others too numerous to list, the liberal advocates can make reasonable arguments that illegal actions must be prosecuted and unwise ones publicly documented if for no other reason than to discourage such trespasses in the future.

But there's a dark undertone of revenge in their insistence, a determination to prove one's own righteousness now that power has, at least temporarily, shifted.

Obama, reflecting his intellectual style and his personal coolness, is so far noncommittal about the liberal wing's thirst for revenge, a position that could cost him support both at large and in Congress.

Pieces of the retribution scenario will come at him from several directions:

• The Democratic Congress, where several committees and members have launched or intend to launch investigations. Approval or disapproval can be both crucial and costly for Obama.

• The federal court, where paths taken by the Bush administration in ongoing cases must be altered or sustained.

• Midnight administrative rulings by the Bush administration, dozens of which go into effect this month and must be abided or undone through complex procedures.

Obama's expressed desire to move American politics beyond its recent psychoses will be tested in each of those arenas. He cannot accomplish that overriding goal if his support is steadily eroded by dozens of narrowly based sandstorms whirling out of a charged political atmosphere.

That would not be change; it would be a continuation of a political culture that has deeply damaged the nation.

America is not some banana republic where real change is not considered accomplished until the opposition is lined up against the wall and shot. Nor is America a medieval caliphate where unrelenting revenge is the false marker of rectitude.

Governing well is the best revenge and the surest route to a better future. While it requires recognizing and condemning the misdeeds of the past, it also means moving quickly and firmly beyond them. Governing well surely requires relentlessly undoing the illegal and unwise acts of your predecessor, but it also dictates not wasting time, energy and political capital looking vengefully backward in a time when we are rushing headlong into huge problems that need full attention and national resolve.

Where clear violations of the law are evident, let normal legal processes take care of them. But the attention of the president and Congress -- and all the rest of us -- is best spent moving ahead.

Davis Merritt is a former editor of The Eagle. Reach him at dmerritt9@cox.net.

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