The Next President

Amend The Constitution

It is not enough to let Scooter Libby slide through the rest of his life, greasing prosperity on Wingnut Welfare. Libby, and Bush, and Cheney, and all the rest, need to face the music for their criminal acts. It won’t happen any time soon, though, because we have basically a gutless Congress with only a few exceptions. The tired argument that the Republicans will obstruct any Democratic attempts at removing Bush and Shooter is perhaps true. But so what? Do you fight every fight worrying that you might lose? Do you run in any races that you know you might lose? For the morale of the country, the Democrats should lead the charge toward removal of the criminal enterprise at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Should the effort to remove these ill-begotten sons of privilege and contempt fail, then, the next President, whether Clinton, Obama, Edwards, or Ron Paul, after three days of careful lubrication of the legislative and bureaucratic wheels in the now veto-proof majority-ruled Congress, should immediately and unconditionally pardon Scooter Libby of all crimes related to the Plame investigation.

On the fourth day, Libby should be subpoenaed to appear before Congress and testify about everything he knows about the Plame outing. Given the general above-the-law smugness of everyone connected with the Bush cabal, Libby will evade, obfuscate, and outright refuse to answer. At that point, he can be transferred to an appropriate jail cell until such time that he agrees to answer Congress’ questions truthfully.

On the fifth day the Congress should send forth unto the States an Amendment to the Constitution that says that a presidential pardon or commutation can be overturned by a majority vote of the Congress. I do think that Amendment would pass the states and the people’s muster.

On the sixth day, the President should order the Attorney General to begin and complete and thorough investigation, backtracking every unraveling thread to this scandal even if it extends backwards to a by-gone era like Iran-Contra. The truth knows no statute of limitations.

There will be no rest on the seventh day, for that is when the next President must sign a new, reenergized version of the Fairness Doctrine, one that guarantees Net Neutrality and at least gives us a fighting chance of getting the truth out of the media.

Congress and the next President need to pledge to the American people that, like Osama Bin Forgotten, they will pursue the King and all his men and women to the gates of Hell until justice is finally served and the truth is known.

Though all that might be totally unnecessary if the next President has the cajones to do what is really called for—declare the whole kit and caboodle of neocon trash enemy combatants and then let Mitt do the “double Gitmo” on them.