Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
I’ve heard of “Concern Trolling” before, but this really takes the cake…
David “Dean of the Beltway Press Corpse Corps” Broder, gleefully shoving the Overton Window* rightward on torture:
In times like these, the understandable desire to enforce individual accountability must be weighed against the consequences. This country is facing so many huge challenges at home and abroad that the president cannot afford to be drawn into what would undoubtedly be a major, bitter partisan battle over prosecution of Bush-era officials. The cost to the country would simply be too great.
When President Ford pardoned Nixon in 1974, I wrote one of the few columns endorsing his decision, which was made on the basis that it was more important for America to focus on the task of changing the way it would be governed and addressing the current problems. It took a full generation for the decision to be recognized by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and others as the act of courage that it had been.
I hope we can avoid another such lapse. The wheels are turning, but they can still be halted before irreparable damage is done.
Mind you, this is the same David Broder who called for Bill Clinton to resign during Monicagate. So now we have a glimpse of Broder’s moral calculus (such as it is): Oval Office hummers are worse crimes than flagrant human rights abuses. I wish I were making this up.
* Cf.
