You said yourself, Mr. President, that violations of the law must be punished. Yes, you said it about North Korea and in connection with Kim Jong Il's launch of what he said was a communications satellite and everyone else in the world thinks is a long-range ballistic missile. [Just as well that the launch failed despite Kim's claim that North Korea now has a satellite in space playing patriotic songs.--Ed.]
So why aren't your words equally true when the violators are here at home and what they've violated is our own Constitution?
You taught Constitutional Law, for heaven's sake!
You need to get back on track in a hurry and have the Department of Justice investigate and prosecute the Bush Administration people who broke our most fundamental laws--no matter how high or with whom in the prior administration the responsibility rests. You were wrong when you voted in the Senate for giving the telecoms immunity for having enabled warrantless wiretaps of Americans in the US. You are wrong now for saying that we must look forward, not backward. You are also wrong now for letting the government's attorneys claim in court that the need for "state secrets" is even broader than anything the Bush Administration considered proposing.
America will never get its house in order and regain its moral stature in the world's eyes, no matter how careful and skillful your diplomacy, until we clean up the mess at home. Sweeping it all under the rug isn't going to cut it. [Pun intended.--Ed.]
Please reconsider. This isn't a matter of "liberal vs. conservative." It's all interconnected, the same way your brilliant push for infrastructure modernization, turning to a truly green energy economy, and reforming health care are all vital parts of the solution to our current economic crisis.
This is a matter of preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution--of fulfilling the oath you swore when you were inaugurated. It's necessary to live up to the promise of what makes America unique. In that regard, claiming we need to punish North Korea while ignoring the criminals amongst us is idiotic. North Korea, if it ever does get one of those missiles to work, may destroy us physically--but letting the Bush Administration criminals take a collective walk destroys our belief in our system. We can rebuild bombed-out buildings, but once our integrity and our faith in our system of government (a government "of laws and not of men") are gone, America is no more . . . forever.
You're smarter than this, Mr. President. Please, please, please reconsider and apply your own standards about punishing violators to the biggest violators of all.
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