RI Senator Whitehouse Will Investigate Bush If Obama Won’t

Sheldon Whitehouse (left), who sits on both the Intelligence and and Judicial Committees, says Congress needs to look at the secret legal opinions drafted for Vice President Cheney.

“I think that there’s a lot that remains to look at, and I appreciate that President Obama doesn’t want to make it his purpose as a new president, with America in real distress in many directions, to go back and look at all this, but I think we in Congress have an independent responsibility, and I fully intend to discharge that responsibility,” Whitehouse said.

Warrantless wiretapping and coercive investigations would be just a couple of items on the agenda.  Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois says senators need to focus on the future.

“There’s a big debate going on about holding the previous administration accountable for [its] actions, and I would say for the time being that the Obama team is focused properly on the future,” Durbin said. “Our economy is so weak; we’re in desperate need of jobs. Before we start looking at the pages of history in the Bush administration, we should be looking at the obvious need to create jobs and create a new economic climate in this country.”

John Conyers has a 487-page report out today, “Reigning in the Imperial Presidency“, and says the incoming administration “should finally begin an independent criminal review of activities of the outgoing administration.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.