I was listening last night to Keith Olbermann and Richard Wolffe parse President Obama’s answers to questions about torture. They expressed frustration that he didn’t come right out and say that the Bush Administration sanctioned torture.
And suddenly I remembered something. I once had a Bad Boss. She was a Very Bad Boss. She was so bad, her underlings took the risk of complaining about her to the über-boss. The über-boss expressed surprise, thanked us for our candor, deflected the complaints and promised us nothing.
And about a month later, the Very Bad Boss abruptly left the company to “pursue other opportunities”.
A few years later, I watched the same thing happen with another Very Bad Boss.
From these incidents, I learned that when the People In Charge have to deal with a serious problem, they don’t let on that they’re dealing with it until it’s time to take action. They may even specifically give the impression that they don’t see any problem that needs to be dealt with. They take time before applying the solution, in order to make sure the solution is successful and effective, and there’s no blowback.
I’m thinking that this is what’s going on with the torture issue: We don’t see the Obama Administration preparing to do the right thing, but that doesn’t mean they’re not doing it. They just know enough not to let on until they’re ready to take action, because there will inevitably be political repercussions and they don’t need the political attacks undermining their efforts.
Obama’s response to another question reinforces that impression. When asked why Obama’s Justice Department pursued the “state secrets” argument in the case before the Ninth Circuit Court after promising to not to continue Bush’s policy of claiming “state secrets” to evade accountability, the President replied that the case came up too soon for his new Administration to change the direction. The direct implications are that the case in question is not a precedent for the Obama Administration’s future actions, and that the Obama Administration won’t take hasty (and therefore ill-considered) action, no matter the calls for immediate action.
As President Obama said in a previous press conference, “I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.”
So we shouldn’t let up the pressure for an investigation, but we also shouldn’t assume the worst.
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