Under “Friendly Fire”… ACLU’s Romero predicts Obama will be swallowed in “legal morass” like Bush

Ah yes… another day, another “off the record” meeting with the Obama admin and some leaked tidbits of a stand off between an Obama in “remarkable command” of the issues and his liberal base of multiple legal eagle and human rights organizations.

Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reports on Obama’s “friendly fire” in a 75 minute long meeting that highlighted tensions, and left many of Obama’s leftist base disappointed.

According to three sources who attended the meeting, Obama reiterated his intention to retain a version of the military-tribunal system established to try terror detainees and said his administration will likely end up adopting some form of “indefinite detention” policy to justify holding some selected suspects without trial. Still, Obama brusquely rejected suggestions by some of those present that, in doing so, he was adopting key tenets of Bush-era policies considered unacceptable by his liberal supporters.

“It doesn’t help to equate me to Bush,” Obama said, arguing that such comparisons overlook important differences between the two administrations’ policies, according to several sources attending the meeting.

The sources, all of whom asked not to be identified because of the White House insistence that the meeting was private, also said Attorney General Eric Holder sat by silently while the president curtly dismissed the idea that his Justice Department should criminally prosecute at least one Bush administration official for torture, if only as a symbolic move to demonstrate that actions such as waterboarding will never be tolerated again.

American Civil Liberties Union executive director, Anthony Romero, was one of those less than thrilled, but did go on the record with Newsweek… despite the others declining to do the same based on the WH’s insistance that the meeting was “private”.

Obama showed a “remarkable command” of the issues, Romero said. But, he added, “it is disappointing that he appears poised to continue with many of the Bush policies that have ended in failure. If he goes down that track, President Obama will find himself in the same legal morass that swallowed up George Bush.”

I think we’ve all “got it” now that Obama has every intention of continuing “on that track”…

Yesterday’s meeting preceded his speech this morning at the National Archives… a maneuever designed to “regain control of the debate” and combat Wednesday’s “stunning setback” with the Senate voting to refuse funding to close Guantanamo. At least one key Dem, senior member of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Alcee Hastings, is planning legislation ordering Gitmo remain open, but assures the world there’s no “torture” going on. Meanwhile, Harry Reid and others basically said, nice speech, but no “game changer”. Where’s the plan?

The same day of this meeting, U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled that the Obama admin could, indeed, hold some of the detainees at Gitmo indefinitely, and without charges.

Uh… wasn’t that the beef with Dubya? This “indefinite detention” bit, extended primarily by the detainees’ lawyers litigation delays, had the O’faithful up in arms. And now… slipping into the final paragraphs of an MSNBC article.. is a single, brief paragraph casually mentioning a US District Judge now bestows his blessings to do just that.

I swear I am living in a parallel universe, right?

According to Isikoff, the WH is less stressed over the GOP and Cheney criticisms than they are over their own base. And tho this may have been billed as a “listening” session, it didn’t turn out that way.

While the criticism from Cheney and other Republicans has been a constant in the Washington media, Wednesday’s meeting underscores how worried the White House is about critics closer to home. Administration officials organized the session just a few days ago, summoning the leaders of groups such as Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU, as well as several liberal law professors. As a sign of how seriously the White House took the matter, just about all of Obama’s senior staff were there, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, White House counsel Gregory Craig, senior adviser David Axelrod and Holder.

But sources say Obama did all the talking, starting the meeting with a 10- to -15-minute discourse on his attempts to “institutionally” overhaul the Bush counterterror agenda by establishing clear policies and guidelines based on the rule of law and not dependent on the individual judgment of him or any other future president. It was at that point, according to two sources in attendance, that Obama talked about inheriting “a mess” from the prior administration. Obama also appeared frustrated by the growing criticism directed at him over the Guantánamo issue, two of those present said.

Obama does not take criticism well….

A refreshing comment from one of the unsourced did say that Obama appeared very concerned over the possibility that any of these detainees being released would commit a terrorist act. Reality has begun to sink it, and evidently it’s not as pretty a picture as it looked from the campaign trail.

So the consensus of those at the meeting is that Obama will be attempting to hold detainees indefinitely using the laws of war. (uh… where have I heard that before? Let me think… don’t help… LOL)

When it came to the inevitable… revenge on the Bush admin and prosecution… Obama appeared most worried about how time consuming the process would be for his key admin officials.

Looking directly at Holder, the president reportedly said the attorney general was already spending too much time dealing with litigation related to Bush-administration policies. “He was worried that his people would be consumed with responding to these things,” said one of those present. “He said his staff was stretched very thin.”

It was at that point, toward the end of the meeting, that one attendee raised the idea of criminal prosecution of at least one Bush-era official, if only as a symbolic gesture. Obama dismissed the idea, several of those in attendance said, making it clear that he had no interest in such an investigation. Holder—whose department is supposed to make the call on criminal prosecutions—reportedly said nothing.

But Obama wasn’t alone dodging the issues with his O’faithful. Per a report and video from CNS News, Dem Congressmen are caught on tape, fleeing cameras when asked for comments on the Pelosi vs the CIA debacle.

Rep. Sander M. Levin (D.-Mich.), initially declined to comment and walked swiftly away, but then he stopped, turned around, and walked back to say he “believes” in the speaker.

When asked whether he agrees with Speaker Pelosi that the CIA misleads Congress, Levin said: “Nancy Pelosi felt that she had been misled by the CIA and I believe in the Speaker.”

Rep. Albio Sires (D-N.J.) walked away saying he would not comment as soon as CNSNews.com said it wanted to ask him about Pelosi’s press conference of last week where she made the comments about the CIA.

Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) said he did not see Pelosi’s May 14 press conference.



“I don’t have any first-hand knowledge or any expertise,” Minnick told CNSNews.com. “I didn’t either attend or see the press conference, so I think–all I know is news accounts and I don’t know who’s right on it. I do know the speaker is a pretty effective leader and it appears to be a distraction that, hopefully, we’ll get to the bottom of and we’ll get on with business.”

Yup… the popular POTUS and Congress members are dodging bullets left and right. And oddly enough, they are being fired not only from their own constituents, but from a heretofore complacent media.

Payback can be a bitch, eh?