President-elect Barack Obama

via Advocates of a Special Prosecutor for Bush Seek an Answer From Obama – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com.

January 7, 2009, 6:59 pm

Advocates of a Special Prosecutor for Bush Seek an Answer From Obama

By Michael Falcone

With few exceptions the transition period has been a model of presidential goodwill and cooperation. Apparently, the curious users who have been submitting questions on President-elect Barack Obama’s Web site, Change.gov, didn’t get the memo.

In fact, the number one submission on the popular “Open for Questions” portion of the site might seem more than a little impolitic to the current, and soon to be former, occupant of the White House.

“Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor — ideally Patrick Fitzgerald — to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping,” wrote Bob Fertik of New York, who runs the Web site, Democrats.com

No. He will not.

I remember the question as I took my turn asking and judging on Change.gov. Everybody should have, progressive or conservative.

It is true that during the very few times that Obama has mentioned this subject he has left himself some wiggle room, but I cannot think that Mr. Obama will waste time on this.

“What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that’s already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued,” Mr. Obama told a Philadelphia journalist last April. But he went on to emphasize the difference between what he called “really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity.”

I remember thinking, when reviewing the question, that a witch hunt would only add a ton of drama onto a fledgling administration that has been loathe to drama and quick to stamp out what small amount there has been. Obama’s campaign was all about control and no drama. “No drama Obama”, that’s what we called him.

The article goes on to say that there had been over 22,000 votes for this question.

But a clue to their potential response might come from the mouth of Vice President-elect Joe Biden who told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos recently that he would not rule in or rule out a Justice Department inquiry into the role of top Bush administration officials in cases of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and other facilities.

“The questions of whether or not a criminal act has been committed or a very, very, very bad judgment has been engaged in is something the Justice Department decides,” Mr. Biden said.

Barack Obama has pushed hard to begin the change that he promised in the campaign. He will not get side-tracked in this endeavor. It is not his nature.