I don't see another diary about this yet, so am shooting it out ... the story and discussion of it, to my mind, belongs top o' Page 1, everywhere.
"Salon has uncovered new evidence of post-9/11 spying on Americans. Obtained documents point to a potential investigation of the White House that could rival Watergate."
What's more important -- Salon has uncovered evidence that a Democratic Congress is contemplating really doing its job starting in 2009 -- assuming we can make the gains in the Senate that seem possible.
A new Church Committee?
Flip ... or just read the article, and hope. Civil libertarians, don't give up.
I won't bother to list and recount the Bush administration's abuses of power. I'm among those who thinks he belongs in jail, not the White House. But I'd about given up on anything beyond hoping that future administrations would not take the Bush abuses of power as a template for rule by executive fiat.
Congress? Right. Bahh.
Until I read this:
"Now, in the twilight of the Bush presidency, a movement is stirring in Washington for a sweeping new inquiry into White House malfeasance that would be modeled after the famous Church Committee congressional investigation of the 1970s."
The proposal for a Church Committee-style investigation emerged from talks between civil liberties advocates and aides to Democratic leaders in Congress, according to sources involved. (Pelosi's and Conyers' offices both declined to comment.) Looking forward to 2009, when both Congress and the White House may well be controlled by Democrats, the idea is to have Congress appoint an investigative body to discover the full extent of what the Bush White House did in the war on terror to undermine the Constitution and U.S. and international laws. The goal would be to implement government reforms aimed at preventing future abuses -- and perhaps to bring accountability for wrongdoing by Bush officials.
"If we know this much about torture, rendition, secret prisons and warrantless wiretapping despite the administration's attempts to stonewall, then imagine what we don't know," says a senior Democratic congressional aide who is familiar with the proposal and has been involved in several high-profile congressional investigations.
2009 ...
Countdown.
Keith?
Start hammering ...