Leads that need to go away: "The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush…"
It's a truism of opposing executive power: you're going to be disappointed. Makes sense–Obama stands to expose himself to lots of trouble by promoting accountability and transparency in his administration. It must be all too easy to take the reins and suddenly see the advantages of preserving all the power Bush and Cheney squeezed out of the traditionally checked power of the executive.
But it was wrong when Bush did it, and it's wrong now that Obama is doing it. Obama's the first presidential candidate in many, many years who doesn't seem utterly corrupt. In siding with the Bush administration's attempts to withhold what are, no doubt, questionable (or likely worse) emails, Obama is preventing the kind of reckoning we need in order to regain our proper balance of power in governing ourselves (and yes, I realize those last two words have become a bit of a joke–most people seem just fine with being ruled rather than fulfilling our responsiblity to police the power we yield to politicians).
For what little it's worth, I like Obama. But he should not be allowed to traverse the clear limits of executive power, no matter how suave he is.
And in related matters: A judge is questioning whether Congress really can immunize the telecommunications companies who may be complicit in Bush administration spying. Could get interesting.
