Obama Administration Twitchy on Torture?

In what I see as the latest attempt to be all things to all political stripes and pressures, the President today signaled that he might just, maybe, in a pinch, be OK with perhaps leaving a small crack in the door open for a commission to study the Bush administration's use of "harsh interrogation techniques" and possibly the prosecution of the Bush attorneys that ginned-up the legal rationale for their use in the first place.

As The New York Times reports today,

Mr. Obama, who has been saying that the nation should look ahead rather than focusing on the past, said he is "not suggesting" that a commission be established.

But in response to questions from reporters in the Oval Office, he said, "if and when there needs to be a further accounting," he hoped that Congress would examine ways to obtain one "in a bipartisan fashion," from people who are independent and therefore can build credibility with the public.

This further confuses Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel's take this past Sunday's appearance on ABC's "This Week" stating, "those who devised policy" also "should not be prosecuted." By Monday, aides were already backpeddling, stating that Emmanuel meant those who carried out the torture, not the architects.

Since the release last week of the secret memos outlining the "harsh techniques", President Obama has been beaten about the head and neck from all sides after declaring that he would not press for prosecutions. The left, who has been impatiently waiting for any chance to get at the Bush administration for anything they can get their hands on was very vocal, very fast:

Congressional Democrats and international officials pressed for a fuller accounting of what happened. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, wrote Mr. Obama asking him not to rule out prosecutions until her panel completed an investigation over the next six to eight months.

And being press-shy for the past 8 or so years has not stopped former VP Dick Cheney from vocalizing his outrage over all things Obama on any outlet that will give him time. I'm fully expecting him to take green room space away from Pat Buchanan and Al Sharpton at a cable news outlet near you:

Some Bush administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, accused the administration on Monday of endangering the country by disclosing national secrets. Mr. Cheney went on the Fox News Channel to announce that he had asked the C.I.A. to declassify reports documenting the intelligence gained from the interrogations. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the former C.I.A. director, has also condemned the release of the memorandums and said the harsh questioning had value.

(Cheney's latest visit to Fox News can be seen below.)

It's pretty obvious that the new administration needs some serious message control. Obama craves to be a moderate - and that's fine - but he'll need to take the bashing from both sides that moderates get to live with. Triangulating and waffling may have worked for people surnamed Clinton, but Obama's promise of openness, sincerity and sunlight is in direct contrast to his recent actions. Nobody likes a waffler. Note yesterday's almost embarrassing kissy face at CIA headquarters. That speech was probably written long before this latest dust-up, but rings hollow now.

My thought? Obama should have left it at looking forward and not back and stuck with that. Presidents don't investigate and prosecute - congresses and Attorneys General do. Let them do what they think they need to do and run with your plausible deniability.