Don’t Look Back in Anger

I never enjoy disagreeing with my friend Bill Press, as I am extremely fond of him, but President Obama and Lanny Davis are both right on the torture firestorm — minimize the retribution and move on.

On “Good Morning America” Wednesday, Davis said, “This would be the first administration in American history to look backwards and prosecute, rather than let the judgment of history do its work, which is what ought to be the case here.”

Obama, who has maintained a look-forward-not-back position on prosecutions of Bush-era officials and policies for months now, has clearly buckled to the increasing pressure from the left with his new door opening on an investigative commission. But as Dan Balz reported in The Washington Post Wednesday, Obama’s staff had originally pushed for a commission and he opposed it.

Congress is a co-equal branch of government and cannot be stopped from investigating the Bush administration, and Obama acknowledged the Justice Department will do its own work on this explosive matter. Obama can hope his call for a nonpartisan panel will be heeded, but there is no guarantee.

I covered the Congress during impeachment, through numerous independent counsels, and the numerous investigations then-House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Chairman Dan Burton (R-Ind.) conducted into the Clinton administration — these probes consume everything, and the effect they have on all forms of business cannot be contained. Should prosecutions of the former administration — of another political party — be pursued, they will poison both parties and the potential to solve the grave problems facing the country right now.

It is not that this debate isn’t important, but the numerous crises the president and Congress and the public should focus on are far more important. Obama should stand firm in opposing anything that will create the “feeding frenzy” he fears.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Ask A.B.’s 100 Day Report Card is coming Tuesday, April 28. Please submit your Top 10 mistakes and Top 10 successes of Obama’s first 100 days by e-mailing me at askab@digital-staging.thehill.com. Thank you.