Do the Bush years need a “Truth Commission”?

By CJP | March 4, 2009

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) thinks so.  To that end, the senator, who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is holding a hearing on Capitol Hill this morning to discuss “Getting to the Truth Through a Nonpartisan Commission of Inquiry.”  In plain English, Leahy wants to create an independent commission to investigate the Bush administration and its treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. 

Leahy’s fellow committee Democrats Russ Feingold and Sheldon Whitehouse strongly support the idea, but response from the White House has been cool.  When asked about Leahy’s proposal, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded, “I think the President obviously is concerned about, as he said on many occasions, detainee policy and interrogation tactics, and that he’s taken the steps, the beginning steps to address Guantanamo Bay and to put the country firmly on record against torture. But I also think the president is focused less on looking back and more on looking forward.”

Response from Republicans has been downright hostile.  Sen. Jim DeMint told “The Hill,” “It’s something a Third World Soviet-bloc country would do.  To keep investigating the Bush administration is ridiculous. Everything he did is in the light of day and he was criticized for it every day of his administration.”

You can find the witness list and opening statements on the Judiciary Committee’s web site, and watch the whole thing live over on C-SPAN 3 or at C-SPAN.org

Topics: Foreign Policy, Senate

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