Conyers' Proposed Prez Powers Commission Doesn't Go Far Enough

Not only is John Conyers busy protesting Sanjay Gupta, he is looking ahead to starting a commission to investigate what the hell went on in the last eight years. There is plenty we already know, but didn't go on the record because we had a combination of a timid Democratic Congress and a Republican one that didn't care. The question is though, is it enough?

From The Public Record:

In one of the first acts of the 111th Congress, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers proposed legislation to create a blue-ribbon panel of outside experts to probe the “broad range” of policies pursued by the Bush administration “under claims of unreviewable war powers,” including torture of detainees and warrantless wiretaps.

Conyers’s proposal for a National Commission on Presidential War Powers and Civil Liberties also signals that Congress will devote significant time this year to investigating the Bush administration’s most controversial actions with an eye to rolling back its expansion of executive power.

Many civil liberties and human rights groups feared that the Democratic-controlled Congress and Barack Obama’s administration would duck any sustained inquiry into wrongdoing by George W. Bush and his subordinates, to avoid angering Republicans.

While Conyers’s plan falls short of the criminal probe that civil rights groups have sought, neither would it prevent a criminal investigation by Obama’s Justice Department if the new administration moves in that direction, said two aides on Obama’s transition team who spoke on condition of anonymity.

I'm glad that Obama's people are still thinking about the possibility of criminal investigations. Conyers however, isn't willing to go the distance that is necessary. Bush, Cheney and the rest of the cabal deserve to be put in front of the full force of the law. We aren't looking for slaps on the wrist or a sternly worded letter. This isn't about revenge, it is simply so that we as a nation of laws (not men) follow those laws. Conyers should not be afraid of that and neither should the rest of Congress.