Barack Obama In 2007: The President Shouldn’t Hide Behind Executive Privilege
In 2007, then Senator Barack Obama appeared on CNN to discuss the then ongoing investigations over the firing of U.S. Attorneys and the Valerie Plame leak and criticized the Bush Administration’s efforts to invoke Executive Privilege with respect to both investigations:
What a difference five years makes, eh?
well now, who didnt see that coming?
Maybe context matters? Nah, that couldn’t be it.
Power corrupts and all that. As does nonstop partisan battle (siege mentality), I suspect.
Of course, the specifics matter. One may not be perfectly analogous to the other.
@neil:
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the main contextual difference is that before he was just a senator, now he’s the president.
It was bad when Bush it. It’s bad now when Obama does it. It’ll still be bad when whoever the next president is does it. And the one after that, and after that …
I’ve said it before, and it’s truer than ever: Senator Obama would be calling for the impeachment of President Obama.
Well, that’s not true. That’s presuming that Senator Obama was willing to stick his neck out and put some actions to his words. But the principle is correct. President Obama seems determined to do all the things Senator Obama opposed.
george,
“It was bad when Bush it.”
And yet Republicans at the time could not bring themselves to say that. Instead, they voted in party line in Committee not to subpoena the Bush White House, and only 3 Republicans in the full House broke ranks. Why do Republicans expect that Democrats will do something they couldn’t?
The old adage “where you stand is based on where you sit” is as relevant as ever.
@Jenos Idanian #13: You mean all the things you supported when the guy from your team did them?
@Moosebreath:
I doubt they do, any more than Democrats expect Republicans to be consistent between in and out of office terms. In fact, I think most people hearing this will just shrug, and say “a politician saying one thing and doing another, business as normal.”
Because politics is mainly about team sports, and its just like a hard tackle in football – unnecessary roughing if done by the other team, but just good, hardnosed football if done by our team.
Both parties are always going on about “false equivalencies”, but for the most part, the differences are at secondary (or tertiary or quaternary) levels … also known as rationalizations, or, if you have kids, excuses.
Obama is not the first liberal to get mugged by reality. He won’t be the last.
@wr: I realize you have a very short attention span, but we’re not talking about me, we’re talking about Obama here. He’s taller and darker, if you need help telling us apart.
@Jenos Idanian #13:
please show us your long form birth certificate
@al-Ameda: Sorry, will you settle for my papers? I was one of a litter of 8 born at the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm…
Tsar Nicholas isn’t the first hack to constantly vomit endless clichés, trying to pass them off as witty repartee, but it would be nice if he was the last…
There really is no need to smear Snoopy in that way…
@An Interested Party: I’m just relieved someone caught the reference. Thanks, IP.