[Posted by Karl]

Pres. Obama does not want a “truth commission” looking into the Bush Administration’s harsh interrogation of high-value enemy combatants. People may think his flip-flop on having the Justice Dept. look into the matter is a cave to hysterical, Sullivan-esque self-soilers, but that is only half-accurate. The point of fobbing this issue off on Holder & Co. is precisely to try to remove everyone else from the equation, including the media. This was a common tactic of the Clinton Administration: “Sorry, as you know, this matter is under investigation, so I am not at liberty to comment.”

Sen. Majority Ldr. Harry Reid (D-NV) concurred with Obama, leaving House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) carrying the banner for a “truth commission.” No doubt her constituents in San Francisco would favor it as well. But privately, she — like most Democrats — probably recognize that it would not only distract them from their ginormous left-wing policy agenda, but also provoke a “scorched earth” resistance to that agenda from the GOP.

Indeed, the smarter ones likely realize that criminal charges against the lawyers who drafted the interrogation memos is exceedingly unlikely. The case for pursuing war crimes charges is only marginally better. The waterboarding that went on here is not the “water cure” administered by US soldiers in the Philippines, or the Asano war crimes case, both of which involved pouring water directly into the mouths and noses of subjects, which is considerably more harsh and dangerous.

The Democrats know as much as anyone that this issue already polls badly with likely voters. Trying to pretend that the Bush Administration was like the Third Reich simply would not play with anyone less unhinged than the Andrew Sullivans of the world (who would likely end up disappointed with the outcome). If Congressional Democrats pursue this, it will most likely be with the expectation that the GOP would rise to prevent any sort of bipartisan effort, allowing the Dems to retreat, while blaming the GOP.

Finally, despite the feistiness of former VPOTUS Dick Cheney, the GOP would gain little from a “truth commission.” Sure, it would be fun to expose the hypocrisy of the Congressional Democrats who knew and repeatedly approved the program. But every day spent dwelling on the Bush Administration is a day not spent moving forward, which Republicans ought to want to do as much as Obama does. The GOP is wildly unpopular; wallowing in these show trials, even if cathartic to those who would get the chance to defend themselves, would simply play into the DNC strategy of painting the Republicans as mired in the past.

In short, a “truth commission” ultimately serves almost no one’s political interest. It is an idea pushed forward by the screeching rage of a vocal minority. It will likely suffer the same fate as the AIG bonus taxes — once the story leaves the headlines, it will die in the shadows.

—

Update: As an aside, the above link to the Asano case is a purported debunking of a claim made by Paul Begala. Today, Begala claims he was not referring to the Asano case, but to the Tokyo Trials, officially known as the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. The problem with that is that those cases are just as distinguishable, unless one assumes that dumping buckets of water through a towel, filling up the mouth and nostrils with water, is the same as pouring water on KSMs head wrapped in cellophane for less than a minute at a time.

Update x2: Mark Hemingway responds to Begala, noting not only the difference between cellophane and a cloth towel as protection, but also that at the Tokyo Trials, only seven Japanese war criminals were executed, all of whom were convicted of either being complicit in or directly comitting atrocities and murder on a grand scale.

–Karl