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Monday, April 27, 2009
Michael Barone :: Townhall.com Columnist
The Left's Angry Mob Recalls Madame Defarge
by Michael Barone
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It's tough trying to please people who crave vengeance almost as much as Madame Defarge, the unsparing French revolutionary in Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities." That's what Barack Obama found out last week -- and will find out next week and for weeks to come unless he settles once and for all that he will follow the practice of all his predecessors and not prosecute decision-makers in the previous administration.

The Madame Defarges of the Democratic left want to see the guillotine flash down and heads roll. Specifically, they want to see the prosecution or impeachment of officials who approved enhanced interrogation techniques -- torture, in their view.

The president, it appears, is of two minds. On April 16, he released memorandums from the Bush administration Office of Legal Counsel approving the interrogation methods and said that CIA interrogators relying on them would not be prosecuted. Also released was the partial text of a letter from Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair characterizing those memos as "graphic and disturbing."

Obama was criticized for revealing intelligence information useful to our enemies. "Nobody should pretend," wrote Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who approved of Obama's decision, "that the disclosures weren't costly to CIA morale and effectiveness."

On April 20, Obama journeyed to CIA headquarters and defended his decisions. But the Madame Defarges had their knitting needles out, hauling in petitions with 250,000 signatures and demanding blood. On April 21, Obama caved, saying that Bush administration officials who approved the methods could be prosecuted if the attorney general wanted to press the cases. He didn't give the Madame Defarges all they wanted, resisting Speaker Nancy Pelosi's call for a 9/11-type commission. Continued...
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About The Author
Michael Barone is a Fox News Channel contributor and co-author of The Almanac of American Politics. He is Senior Political Analyst for the Washington Examiner and a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Fox News Channel contributor and co-author of The Almanac of American Politics.
 
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Reply # 1
Date: Apr 28, 2009 - 10:26 PM EST
swinging blade
... here I thought Barney was the swinging blade. I agree, Obama has been a disaster. Praising and embracing our enemies, bowing to foreign soverns and then releasing classified information. If Michelle putting her arm around the queen of England was not enough to let people in the country know that no one with any intelligence seems to be advising these people. All I see is that we are quickly devolving into a semi-communist state. Pretty soon we will make Russia look free and capitalistic in comparison...
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Reply # 2
Date: Apr 28, 2009 - 2:49 PM EST
Slackler Of Syndrome Fame
I'm delusional?

I suppose that NYC flyover didn't happen, eh?

Then explain how it is:

That GM is not now owned by the government (50%) and the UAW (39%), and

That Katrina never happened, and

That the DC sniper was a Christian and never killed anyone, and

That a DC Circuit judge did not rule against the O&G business in favor of Obama & environmentalists, and

That Ike never struck Texas, and

That George Washington was not the first President, and

That Barney Frank is straight, and

That Arlen Specter is not going to switch parties, and

That my City Hall is, locally, called "The Idiot Box", and

That Patty Hearst was from Stockholm, as in syndrome, and

That the economy is booming, and

That Nethanayu is actually the BFF of Ahmadinejad, and

That John McCain won the last election, and

That O&G producers in Texas don't call a well "ti-t's up" when it goes dry.

Darling, I care about you, but you need mental help.
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