Conspiracy to Prosecute

Yet another one of my crackpot conspiracy theories has to do with President Obama's stated commitment to transparency.

The short version (via the New York Times) is this:

Mr. Obama directed federal agencies to err on the side of transparency, not the Bush-era default of secrecy and delay, in releasing records to the public. He also undid the executive order signed by President George Bush that lets past presidents and vice presidents sit indefinitely on potentially embarrassing records that belong in the public domain.

But since it's now so easy to get the exact version, I'll extract that here, from WhiteHouse.gov:

The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails. The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears. Nondisclosure should never be based on an effort to protect the personal interests of Government officials at the expense of those they are supposed to serve. In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies (agencies) should act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public.

All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA.

The presumption of disclosure also means that agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public. They should not wait for specific requests from the public. All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government. Disclosure should be timely.

My theory is simple: Obama will prosecute the Bush Administration (minus Bush himself*) if and only if the public forces him to. I read his message as: if you ask for it , you'll get more than you could have in 8 years, and if you can put it together into a case that forces him to act, he will. He won't waste time going after the past unless the public demands it and he's just given the public the means to do so.

Obama believes in an informed and active citizenry. Therefore informed citizenry will need to determine whether the criminality of the Bush Administration should be investigated. I love this theory. I want the Bush Administration held accountable for what it's done, but I don't want Obama and his staff and cabinet wasting his time looking backward with all that needs to be done so quickly. So if the evidence is there, it's up to the American people to find it, put it together, and make a case. After all, the majority of the American people kept those people in office four years ago, the American people should have to do a little work to prosecute them. Unfortunately, the people who will most likely be doing the investigating won't be the people who voted for them back then, but then that's life when you're a liberal. Always having to clean up the conservatives' messes ;-). We're used to it.

*It is my understanding that a President cannot be charged or prosecuted for acts while in office unless he is first impeached and tried by the Senate to remove him from office. With regards to the Vice President, I don't believe a clear cut protection exists, but I also believe that the current Supreme Court is so afraid of any type of constitutional crisis (this is based on the 2000 election decision and the court is more right-leaning since then) that they would not allow a prosecution of Dick Cheney to move forward. However, given that the Supreme Court cleared the way for civil cases to move forward against sitting presidents (the sexual harassment charge leveled against Bill Clinton), I do expect a flurry of annoying and potentially financially devastating cases to be brought against both Bush and Cheney.