Time to put an end to this tradition

The GOP has suddenly found the importance of limiting the federal deficit. However, until they repudiate Bush, their talk sounds hollow.

Is repudiation of Bush possible? Not by the GOP, even if many are now mumbling about how far Bush forced them to stray from sound economic principles, but by the country as a whole.

A commentator notes:

America has never suffered such a rapid decline in fortune as during the Bush administration. I hope he means more than financial fortune, because the decline at the start of the Great Depression was perhaps much more rapid. But if one includes how we are seen by other countries -- our moral reputation and the ability to have influence for good -- has indeed hit a rapid decline. There are no doubt other measurements of decline.

Never has there been so much evidence of crimes by the president, vice president, and immediate cronies. Most of it is public domain. Some is from the perpetrators themselves in the form of bragging admission. A great deal is from underlings who knew they were being led astray, didn't have the gumption or ability to refuse, and documented why they did what they did. Some did push back -- it was military people who released the Abu Graib photos. I hope someone takes the time to gather all that evidence into one place. It may indeed be public domain, but one must be diligent in searching it out. The truth is out there.

All that means is if someone wanted to prosecute Bush and Cheney the evidence is overwhelmingly in their favor. The advantage for doing so is great: It would keep future presidents from attempting the same thing. It would restore our name in the international community as other countries would take our claims of freedom and fairness seriously. However, it is a case of use it or lose it.

So why don't we?

It isn't just spineless Democrats, though that is a big part of it.

We've never prosecuted former rulers (though we came close with Nixon) and very few democracies have tried. We have had an assortment of "blue ribbon" panels, such as Iran-Contra, but nobody of consequence went to jail and they haven't worked as deterrence.

Rulers who became criminal in other countries tended to disappear through "health emergencies" or mid-air "mechanical failures" or gunmen in the shadows. Democracies are above those sorts of things.

As for Truth Commissions, they've only been used in countries, like Liberia, that are trying to become democracies.

But if we don't prosecute, worse will come.