Newsweek has reported that Attorney General Eric Holder 'may' go against the White House's stated preferences and appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Bush-Era abuses of power--in particular, the increasingly difficult to ignore allegations of officially-sanctioned torture of those detained by the Bush Administration. The Newsweek piece quotes "...four knowledgeable sources" who agree that "...he (Holder) is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices..."

I think it's a pretty safe bet that this is an actual foreshadowing of things to come, and that it will occur with The President's tacit approval, regardless of  what administration officials may wind up saying on the record. 

The reason why?  Well, there's several:  first of all, there is the matter of President Obama's standing in the polls, which is beginning to slip (a recent Quinnipiac University Poll showed a double-digit drop in the President's approval rating in critical swing state Ohio).  The primary reason for this slippage is something that is presently out of the President's control:  the economy.  As President Obama himself explained in an op-ed piece in this morning's Washington Post, the stimulus plan signed into law earlier this year is not expected to show definitive results for two years (yes, conveniently in time for the mid-term elections).  The need for a second stimulus package may be debatable (well, it really isn't), but the ability to pass such legislation is hardly debatable at all.  Between conservative Democratic senators who have to appease Republican-leaning constituents and Republican senators  who won't be appeased by anything less than nullifying the 2008 election results... the votes are just not there.  There will be no second round of stimulus, at least not any time soon.

So...if the President wants to do something about poll numbers that are tanking for reasons that are beyond his control, what else can he do but undertake something that is within his control?--or at least appear above the fray while someone else does it for him.  Very few things would do more to win back disaffected Obama supporters than to finally see a real investigation into the Bush Administration's abuses of power-- even if it appears that the Attorney General initated the investigation independently.  Yes, the President is completely correct in his assessment that such a move will be profoundly unpopular with Republicans--but really, who cares and what difference does it make?  Could congressional Republicans be any less  cooperative than they already are?  Could the GOP "base" be any less paranoid, disrespectful and ignorant than they already are?

But beyond the political calculations, there is the question of just how much Attorney General Holder is actually going against what President Obama ever thought was truly right in the first place.  While our previous president never gave any clear evidence of having read or understood the U.S. Constitution, our current president is a former professor of Constitutional Law.  Whatever he may have said since assuming office, there is little doubt that Barack Obama clearly understands the degree to which elements of the Bush Administration damaged the governing framework of this country.  And while Eric Holder is clearly no "Fredo" Gonzales, it would be foolish to assume that this country's first African-American Attorney General and the equally historic President who appointed him are not working from the same ideological agenda and sense of ethics.  The Newsweek story is a trial balloon, released for the specific purpose (and, one suspects, with Administration approval) of gaging public opinion in advance of a formal announcement.

Lastly, there is the matter of yet other events that are unfolding beyond this president's control.  A piece in yesterday's New York Times outlines an unfolding story that the CIA, acting on order from former Vice-President Dick Cheney, withheld from Congress information on yet another secret "Counter-terrorism" program--a Program that current CIA Director Leon Panetta terminated immediately upon learning of it last month.  At this point, it is unknown what activities this program carried out, but on the basis of what is already known--domestic spying, illegal detentions, torture and kidnapping.  It's difficult to believe that it's going to be anything in which anyone who recalls America's pre-9/11 moral standing is going to take pride.

In the build-up to the Obama Administration's release of Bush-era legal opinions authorizing torture, Eric Holder argued that "if you don't release the memos, you'll own the policy."  He was right, and his opinion prevailed--but he only touched on a much broader point.  There is already indisputable evidence that elements within the Bush White House conspired to contravene the U.S. Constitution and carry out what can only be described as war crimes.  If Barack Obama does not permit his administration to investigate and punish these crimes, he's done far more than take ownership of a policy.  He's become an accomplice after the fact to crimes this country formerly punished with hanging... and rightly so.