Conyers Hits Newsweek As “Glib” And “Cynical”
Rep. John Conyers — angered by a recent Newsweek.com piece claiming that his efforts to force a probe of Bush-era “war on terror” practices are nothing but the “politics of vengeance” — fired off an unusually scathing letter to Newsweek hammering the writer of the article, which Conyers termed “glib” and “cynical” and “littered” with “personal attacks.”
“The important debate regarding whether there should be a criminal investigation of the Bush Administration’s action in areas such as interrogation and domestic surveillance is not well served by the glib and sometimes cynical tone of John Barry’s `The Politics of Vengeance,’” Conyers wrote in the letter, which has yet to be published by Newsweek but was sent our way by a Conyers source.
Conyers is a guy to watch, because he’ll be playing a central role in what is to my mind one of the most riveting narratives involving the new administration: Efforts to force a real investigation of Bush-era terror practices. It’s a storyline we’ll be tracking closely here, and you can read our big profile of Conyers right here at WhoRunsGov, our site devoted to telling you everything you need to know about, well, just about everyone in politics, policy and government.
The larger story behind Conyers’ letter is that he and others who want a full Bush probe will be squaring off for a bitter fight with big D.C. institutional players — including some high-profile Beltway media figures — who are resistant to such an investigation. Few high-profile pundits — Paul Krugman comes to mind — have been willing to endorse that course.
My take: Pieces like this Newsweek one — which took a beating from critics who want a probe — reflect a Beltway-like insistence on viewing calls for an accounting largely through a political prism, rather than a legal one.
“While I respect the view that criminal prosecutions may not be appropriate, I firmly maintain that the decision whether or not to prosecute should not be made until there has been a full review of the facts by an independent prosecutor,” Conyers wrote, adding that “it is not for reasons of vengeance … that I urge a robust investigation and an independent decision on prosecution.”
“I do so because we will not fully learn the lessons of the past, and we certainly will not deter future Administrations from crossing the line in times of peril, unless we act strongly in defense of the requirements of the law right now,” Conyers continued.
One other point: Conyers’ refusal to back down on this front could make life a bit uncomfortable for President Obama, who has signaled a relucance to embrace a full-fledged probe. You can read Conyers’ full letter here.
Update: Nancy Pelosi comments on the possibility of investigating Bush.
I’m confused. Howard Kurtz told me that Newsweek has become “more liberal” in an effort to sell more magazines. I guess not so liberal that they believe in the rule of law. Or at least not for people whose social circles may intersect with their own.
It’s nice to see you posting again, Greg – congratulations on your new role.
In fairness, I think you’d have to call those “Bush era counter-terror practices.”
Also, if you’re going to go after Newsweek for playing the political ahead of the procedural, it’s worth looking at the detail of Conyers proposal. He’s advocating the appointment of an independent prosecutor. That has the advantage of being a well-established mechanism, but the distinct drawback of being a mechanism that has almost always engendered controversy, and only rarely succeeded in establishing what people want to know.
In other words, Conyers is still tightly focused on criminal prosecution – and I rather doubt that he has the votes to pull that off, much less the leverage to force Obama’s hand on this. His clout isn’t what it was in the last Congress.
The more interesting question is whether someone other than Conyers is capable of cobbling together a Congressional consensus backing the establishment of a broader inquiry – whether by special joint committee, an in-house arrangement at DoJ, or a congressionally mandated commission. Those sorts of proposals might actually have some legs; independent prosecutors are not terribly popular on either side of the aisle.
interesting stuff, guys — I think one place to look will be to the signals sent out by Congressional leadership to get a sense of what sort of consensus might or might not be put together, and what it might get behind…
I agree with Conyers that there has to be a deterent for future administrations to flout the law. It’s not revenge, it’s a necessary stop to illegal actions in future administrations.
I think of JOHN OFT TIMES he never backed down gave or up to the BUSH BUNCH and we need to form our own LOBBY in DC to help JOHN and the few others help BARACK along the right paths. READ ON and get involved.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON and any OTHER
By Dwight Baker dbaker007@stx.rr.com
We need your help. And so does Barack. Our nation is on the edge of collapse and we all must care. Without us your work is nil. You need us to keep your advertisers paying in. The more post the better the revenue stream. I think you will agree that about 3 to 5 million of us worked hard and paid in bucks to get Obama elected. And that was good for you as well.
The only way for us as inclusive and communed in work to saving our nation is for us to form our own WE THE PEOPLES LOBBY IN WASHINGTON DC. Now what can THE HUFFINGTON POST do about that? You and the staff can digest the concept of WE THE PEOPLES LOBBY. It is a political doable deal. No one can get in the way. It is strictly Patriotic Advocacy with NO political or FAT CAT TIES. You could take it on and do it.
But I am just one plain ordinary good and godly guy and I need help to get this pushed through. You have lots of connections to get opinions from many others that I just don’t have. You could get interviews with AARP and others like them to get their appraisal of how the WTPL would benefit them.
You taking the lead and SPEAR HEADING THE CONCEPT would do nothing at all to hurt what you have going on but help in every possible way —– that I can see.
No country in the history of mankind has been so close to doing the things HE said do. But seems the fight uphill back from the gloom of our waywardness that we allowed could be helped greatly if HE was to bless our work.
I am a BONDSERVANT TO AND FOR THE LORD JESUS CHRIST he pays me and takes care of my every need. So I need nothing at all from any one. No golden parachutes or rides in a big fancy cars, no notoriety or honoree doctor’s degree, or noble prizes or back rubs from the hubbubs not even thanks.
I worked on this because of my dedication and love for this country and to BRING TO THE BAR OF JUSTICE all those unsavory folks who have lied too cheated and robbed out of our RIGHTS TO LIFE in our great and abundant AMERICA. And of course for my posterity and all my family, friends and kin.
I am a 1944 high mileage human and I don’t have the stamina to do this thing. It is a NOBEL cause and many of your folks could pony right on in to finish this grand task and be richly blessed in doing.
I would kindly like to have a private response as soon as possible.
Dwight Baker
WE THE PEOPLES LOBBY
To Whom It May Concern:
We need your help. We want to replicate what the Grange did way back when—- that has been so successful in many ways for our Democracy.
We need to be associated with others that have plowed that ground before and none is better at that than the Grange. We are in the first birth pangs of getting this huge job under way and we will get there and soon. Most that we know at this time have their own agendas and so on and have their boat loaded with books, TV appearances talking engagements etc. We are still looking for one or a group to spear head the effort till all is set and we are on our way.
FOLLOWING ARE SOME OF THE MATTERS OF MOST IMPORTANCE THAT WE SEE NEEDS ATTENTION
We are about 3 to 5 million strong —- those of us that help elect Barack Obama—- many of us were not red or blue but intelligent folks that knew we needed to get saving our Nation.
We have no other agenda than as advocates for the vast majority of Americans. And we know that we must have an impact in Washington DC or not much at all with happen towards our work to bring equity and normalcy back into our sane and sanguine American Culture.
We are not out to publish any kind of religious agenda or any kind of radical change to our Democracy. What we are out to do is form a public funded ADVOCATE LOBBY with long and strong tentacles to help us sway many in CONGRESS to work the work that is most needed in America today. And above all obey the wishes of the people and enforce the laws in our Constitution.
We believe we can form our own NEWS NET WORK called the WTPL WE THE PEOPLES LOBBY and air that on CSPAN with real news instead of views.
We believe that we can propel along the need to expand the Justice Department five fold and begin cleaning up the mess the BUSH BUNCH and their pundits of about 5,000 have done for the last 40 years. For without our LAWS in our CONSTITUTION being enforced we, as a people will fall then fail as all other vile and evil at the core tyrannical empires have.
We believe that we can have a good impact on how the local banks respond to smaller lending needs for those who have smaller request again as once was in days past —- but not now. We believe we can have an impact on how our inventors are helped along with cost of patents and then the capital needed to fund the small startups that follow, along with close intervention and consultation to take those really good ideas to the stock market to offer IPO’s.
We believe that we can have a strong needed impact on the health care of our VETS. Along with pushing for more psychiatric centers helping those many returning from our current wars.
We believe that we can garner much support from colleges and universities that have needs to air the work of their students and faculties about their ideas about change needed now in America.
We believe that we can have the guardians at the gates on the walls and halls of CONGRESS to make sure that—— NO—— laws are pushed through without the public knowing who, what, when and how much.
We believe that health care and the survival of social security can be accomplished while on our watch.
We believe that we can get more equity in our Democratic system in everyway,
We believe that we can bring an end to unjust usury being charged and waged against our populace by the credit card industry.
We believe we can offer better controls on our energy policies and the needs present to protect our air water and land.
THIS LIST IS A VERY SHORT LIST OF A LOT OF THINGS THAT MUST BE DONE
NEAR TERM.
Please let us know what you can offer with the ideas submitted
Dwight Baker Chairman of the Grass Roots Coalition
Po box 7065
Eagle Pass TX 78853
Tel/fax 830-773-1077
dbaker007@stx.rr.com
While this might make things uncomfortable for Obama, it might also give him cover. If Conyers can show real illegality, then Obama can throw up his hands and say, “we simply cannot ignore criminal acts. I’m bound by my oath to defend the constitution.” At least that’s what I am hoping. There simply has to be a deterent. And in this case, I believe the congressional leadership will have the public on their side.
With due respect to Observer above, Obama’s hand need not be forced to do anything. If nothing else, we should have learned over the last eight years that peril lies ahead when the chief executive imposes his political agenda on the Justice Department. If Conyers and/or others can present evidence to the Attorney General worthy of further investigation the President can stay above the fray.
Greg Sargent wrote;
“My take: Pieces like this Newsweek one — which took a beating from critics who want a probe — reflect a Beltway-like insistence on viewing calls for an accounting largely through a political prism, rather than a legal one.”
Greg if you are arguing Rep. Conyer’s is calling for the continued “investigations” because of his strong belief in upholding the law rather then his well documented partisan leanings and dislike of the Bush administration, and personally I would add his need to elevate himself publicly for egotistical reasons, then you are deluding yourself and the readers.
Of course there is a deep seeded political reason for Rep. Conyer’s pursuing this. All this will do is drag out calls for investigations into people such as Rep. Rangle and others.
I also believe there is even more of a political twist to this call for “continuing the witch hunt of the Bush administration”. If things do not improve in the country under the Democrats they will need a shiny object to dangle in front of the public to deflect any short comings the American people might start to see in the Democrats control of the government.
Rep. Conyer’s and those who think as he does don’t want to foster a new era of bipartisan politics. What they want is to destroy all those who think different then they do. Rep. Conyer’s is not your typical Democrat and I am sure many of his colleagues do want to put the “old ways” behind them but Rep. Conyer’s is driven by an ideology that will not allow him to rest until he has destroyed those he views as his enemies.
John Barry of Newsweek writes: “The productive exercise at this juncture is to figure out how to prevent, as best we can, the grislier parts of this debacle from happening again.” There is nothing like jail time for crooks to deter others from committing crimes in the future. As Lord Halifax famously put it, “Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen”. Barry can rant about “vengeance” and the “blame game” all he likes, but appeals to the rule of law are not “humbug”. They’re fundamentally about deterrence. No doubt members of both parties of Congress were complicit in some of this. That’s not an excuse. If that’s embarrassing for them, so be it. If it rises to the level of criminal liability, so be it.
If Barry believes that the executive should be able to flout the law he should openly advocate that position, not pretend that he is trying to prevent it in the future.
As an aside, Greg, in fairness to Newsweek you might want to note this piece is labeled “Opinion”; they’re not pretending it’s a straight-up news piece and the editors may not even agree with it.
This story and its comments bring up an interesting question: Newsweek is still in business? Who knew!
You wonder why Newsweek is loosing money pretty fast, perhaps, going out of business. Their reporters are bunch of spineless idiots who would rather carry Republican water than do the real heavy lifting.
I cancelled my subscription long time ago.
A criminal prosecution does not require the agreement of the beltway powers or media pundits. It requires only the efforts of a single district attorney with a potential legal claim. While not strictly on the topic of interrogation and domestic surveillance, note that Vincent Bugliosi argued that any county district attorney of a county whose citizen(s) died while serving in Iraq has legal cause to file a murder indictment.
“signaled a relucance to embrace a full-fledged probe..”
Whattaya wanna bet, he’s just being the good cop, and his fellow bad cops have every intention of taking the Cheney junta to task. And is there any doubt that there’s enough evidence to create sufficient suspicion to justify an investigation?
Obama may not be the one to order the investigation(s), he can sit back and passively let the likes of C.R.E.W. and other watchdog entities, public and private, sort through the lies and obfuscations.
The Truth is never going away, and as long as there is evidence that elicits suspicion, and our legal hounds have the tools of Justice at their disposal, they will eventually close in on this elusive quarry. Whether justice is served hot or cold, it will be on the platter.
After the first few dozen convictions along with the imprisonment of all the top administration officials the G string modesty of the right wing propaganda mills will begin to slip . This nauseating progression should assist in adjusting “morals” noise makers into morality . The right wing bias of the corporate media will no longer be able to hide behind the ambiguity of sybaritic pride and greed Monday through Saturday and hypocritical posing on Sunday .
I would not be so quick to conclude that there will be an investigation of the Bush administration. A major difference between 44 and 43 is that President Obama is alive to the possibility of unintended consequences. He will not, if he can help it, open a door that could hit him in the butt later. So, the question is how far can Mr. Conyers proceed without White House support? Quite far, as proved by Sam Irvin, but I am not sure the Rs can be forced to cooperated on this one.
Greg,
Missed ya! Now I gotta bookmark this site.
As for investigations, start them and see where they lead (Like we don’t know…). Don’t make appear like a witch hunt.
If crimintality is discovered, it must be punished. What example would we set if we didn’t? Look what happened after Watergate and Iran-Contra. The same cabal of thugs and thieves have been around for every Republican adminstration. Why? We didn’t do a thing to them. Bush I even pardoned some of the worst of the worst.
Best of luck to you.
Leif Larson above said, “What they want is to destroy all those who think different then they do,” and “Rep. Conyer’s is driven by an ideology that will not allow him to rest until he has destroyed those he views as his enemies.”
Hmm, maybe Mr. Larson should out Conyers’ wife as an agent of the CIA…
Hey, Greg,
Welcome to the new place. Looking forward to continuing to follow your work.
Demand a special prosecutor for the Bush administration.
Or the Chinese Downhill. It is zee only vay!
Good article, and congrats on your new blog.
I agree with JEP above; I think he’s playing good cop as well, so he can stay above it all until so much criminality gets revealed by Congress he can say he had no choice but to go along with investigations. That would be the smart move, and I’ll bet that’s just what he’s doing.
Greg – enjoyed reading you at TPM, bookmarking your blog now.
And at the risk of revealing my ignorance, am I missing a pun, or isn’t the phrase actually “plumb line”?
hey all, thanks … parenthetical, yeah, it’s a play on the Plum Book … and on “plumb line”
Looking forward to reading you here Greg – level, square and plum(b).
I think the key insight here is not about prosecutions, investigations or torture. Conyers’ move shows the beneficial effect of leadership. With Obama at the helm, it’s harder to accept trivialization of important issues, harder to throw up one’s hands at media-idiocy, harder to avoid dealing with the real issues. Conyers is, like so many others, following the gifted leader who now lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (who I suspect is actually named “Michelle”).
Conyers’ push-back seems like news because it’s new, but in pretty short order this won’t seem newsworthy — in part because the media is going to affected by the new administration.
Leif Larson wrote:
.
“Greg if you are arguing Rep. Conyer’s is calling for the continued “investigations” because of his strong belief in upholding the law rather then his well documented partisan leanings and dislike of the Bush administration, and personally I would add his need to elevate himself publicly for egotistical reasons, then you are deluding yourself and the readers.”
.
Well just so we know who the actual mind reader is.
Every time in the past that the GOP has conducted itself treasonously and gone unpunished, the perpetrators have gone on to repeat and exceed themselves at the crimes they initially committed. If it makes life politically difficult for some Democrats, that should be no impediment to actually punishing the monsters we have let loose in our names. AS the truth about the Bush administration continues to trickle out we will, I fear, find out how close we were and are to a neo-Nazi style takeover of the nation with the assent of the governed. If Obama knuckles under to the right with tax breaks and an inadequate, gutless response to the economic disaster, the right wing will be waiting and ready for the Post-Weimar Amerika to fall their way.
The smears against Conyers and others seeking accountability and the nonsense about the “politics of vengeance” are not the only outrages in John Barry’s opinion piece.
The most astounding about-face is his dismissal of the charge that the Bush administration misled Congress and the public about Iraqi weapons threats. This would be a hard sell for any honest reporter, but Barry himself broke a big story just before the U.S. invasion, _in Newsweek_, about the suppression of the 1995 testimony of Hussein Kamel, Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law who defected to Jordan, that Iraq had destroyed all its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.
See Jonathan Schwarz’s tinyrevolution dot com for links and details.
Greg, great work, as usual. Well written-thoughtful analysis.
One point though: you should mention that WhoRunsGov.com is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company, as is Newsweek. I know you are not toeing the Newsweek line here, but you might want to mention that anyway to assuage reader conerns of objectivity.
Greg, I’ve missed your perspective! Congrats on the new home. Your first piece here was, as always, thought-provoking.
One who does not prosecute the past are bound to repeat the lawbreaking.
The top reason for investigation & possibly criminal charges is to ensure that these things are not perpetrated on this country *again*. Abuses of the Bush era are the result of our heads-in-the-sand decisions at the end of the Nixon administration. Rumsfeld was again Secretary of Defense, who encouraged and covered up war crimes in Viet Nam. In 2004, the Toledo Blade newspaper won the Pulitzer Prize for its 2003 investigative series of “Tiger Force”atrocities. If Congress had had the spine to investigate the Nixon administration, Rumsfeld (and Dick Cheney) would have been at least discredited, and hopefully, charged with their abuses in that administration. Instead, they were allowed to slink away and make their plans to return to power. You know how that worked out. On this day, at this hour, it’s time to hold them accountable at last. It’s time to say NEVER AGAIN.
Hey! I was wondering what happened to you. Nice new spot.
I think so many crimes are going to be exposed in the next month or so that there will have to be prosecutions.
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The people who swooned over and parroted “you do the crime, you do the time” are now singing Kumbaya. What gives?
In case some of the believers in the idea that this is ‘political vengeance’ haven’t caught this, we have seen these same players (many of whom committed these crimes, which are felonies) PREVIOUSLY (where they also committed crimes, or are at least suspected of them). While many doubt the deterrent effect of sentences on people other than those sentenced, no one that I know of doubts the deterrent affect of sentences ON THE CRIMINALS THEMSELVES, as it makes them unavailable to commit them, for at least a time. I am heartily in favor of this.
And I’m sorry to say, that these people who haven’t been nailed for this makes it look as though the U.S. as a whole appear to approve of these asshats. And I for one, do not.
In fairness, I think you’d have to call those “Bush era counter-terror practices.” -Observer.
No, I think when you start a war with a country that never attacked us, kill a million of it’s citizens, turn 3 million more into refugees, you’re engaged in terror practices. And when you try to prosecute a citizen that works in a Taco Bell for supposedly building a nuclear bomb, hold him for 5 years in isolation and much of it in sensory depravation, I think those are terror practices, pretty much.
Newsweek has been complete **** for many years. That’s why I never read it. But when I heard about this article, I just had to see it for myself. Is it really that bad? Has Newsweek learned NOTHING in the last however-many years? Can Newsweek STILL be as sucky as ever?
Yes, yes and yes.
Hey, what’s with all these stupid, silly, childish ******* ****** asterisks?
Since the days of Richard Nixon the battle cry of the Right when caught with their pants down has been “No prosecution, it will be bad for the country.” So far it has worked (see Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush). If you want to change the culture of Washington this is where you must begin. It will be terrible, it will be messy and it will be the tough love that the country needs to instill in future politcians the fear of consequences. So let it be written so let it be done.
Does anyone else have any experience with this?
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