By GottaLaff
So far, when it comes to legal repercussions for their thuggery, BushCo has skated. Worms like John Yoo, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Bush himself are free to write books and spew their toxic venom all over the Tee Vee Machine while America (and what's left of its Constitution) has suffered immensely.
There have been no consequences for holding and torturing hostages at Gitmo and elsewhere, for spying on Americans, for outing a CIA agent, etc., ad nauseam.
Will there be any for this?
Nearly two years after the Wall Street meltdown drove the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse, and forced the U.S. government to prop up major financial institutions with hundreds of billions of dollars, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now claims that the Bush Administration prohibited its own top officials who were handling the emerging crisis from briefing Congress until a complete financial collapse was only hours away.
In little-noticed statements to reporters over the last few weeks, Pelosi has alleged that the Bush administration knew well in advance of its intervention that the financial crisis would hit, and that Congress would need to authorize a historic and unpopular bailout - but that top officials, including then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, told her that they had been barred from briefing Congress about true extent of the crisis.
If accurate, the allegation could constitute a major indictment of the Bush administration, which may have worsened the crisis and resulting economic fallout by delaying the call for congressional action.
IMHO, with the economy still slogging through a sluggish recovery, the national state of mind could very well default to blame mode and demand a full investigation. One can only hope. And of course, that's only if this story gets media attention.
Will BushCo be excused because it's difficult to prove intent, or because there is no appetite to go after them?
Nor is it clear if the Administration's alleged decision not to brief Congress earlier was a calculated strategy to avoid spooking the already shaky financial markets thus hastening the crisis or, as Pelosi suggests, a political calculation in advance of the 2008 presidential elections, or a combination of the two.
There's much more here. TPM did a great job reporting this.
UPDATE: Bush and Paulson spokesperson fire back.
H/t: hapkidogal
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