Wednesday, August 26, 2009

5 steps ahead

I'm a chess player. Ok, let me rephrase: I sometimes try to play chess and usually end up losing. To toddlers. It's quite sad, really. I think my greatest weakness there is the inability to think more than about two moves ahead. Maybe I don't have the smarts, or maybe it's a lack of patience and foc...

Hey - look over there!

Just kidding.

I've always been impressed with those who can think three or four moves down the road and the few who can go beyond that appear to dabble in nothing short of wizardry.

When Barack Obama took office six months ago he said there wouldn't be an investigation into what is looking more and more like the previous administration's despicable use of torture and other illegal actions. I was disappointed and thought maybe he didn't have the stomach for it. Or perhaps he was willing to sweep it under the rug and really did want to bury the hatchet to try to build a new bipartisanship, despite the GOP's strenuous efforts to thwart any such offer.

Two days ago Attorney General Eric Holder appointed an investigator to look into "enhanced interrogation" techniques. Of course the Bushies, especially the former VP, went ballistic claiming partisanship and that Holder is clearly Obama's puppet. I guess they think that all Presidents do as their did and hand pick an AG with more allegiance to the executive branch than the judicial, job description notwithstanding. It was a long time coming.

Those of us in "we're a country of laws not men" land are left with two possibilities: President Obama is unhappy about the special investigation and just hasn't said so; or he saw this coming six+ months ago and decided that by speaking out against investigations early he could reinforce the firewall between the branches of government and give Holder the space to do what has to be done.

Maybe he's 5 steps ahead of the rest of us. Or more.

It's a Jedi thing and I clearly wouldn't understand.

1 comment:

  1. I am a mediocre chess player. But I would make a *terrible* politician.

    ReplyDelete