Bitter

You know what makes me bitter?

When the Ivy League-graduate multimillionaire former First Lady prompts such Working Class Heroes as Bill Kristol George Will and, oh yeah, John McCain, to spend days blathering about Obama's "elitist" comment.

Particularly when, all the while, the President of the United States has admitted to a criminal conspiracy and almost no one is talking about it.

What? You mean you hadn't heard that the President admitted to knowing and approving of his senior advisors plotting war crimes? (Doesn't that seem like the sort of thing a prospective Democratic nominee ought to be making noise about? Huh.)

President Bush says he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to an exclusive interview with ABC News Friday.

"Well, we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people." Bush told ABC News White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. "And yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."

As first reported by ABC News Wednesday, the most senior Bush administration officials repeatedly discussed and approved specific details of exactly how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the CIA.

The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.

These top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding, sources told ABC news.

The senior officials involved included Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld Colin Powell, George Tenet and John Ashcroft. Remember just a few years ago, when these very same people were working hard to convince the world that the misdeeds of Abu Ghraib were the work of a "few bad apples"? I think we now know where the bad apples that spoiled the whole bunch were working, don't we?

Dan Froomkin details what really has me bitter:

The mainstream media by and large seem to agree with Bush that the ABC News Report wasn't so startling, and they have given Bush's remarks almost no coverage. There was no mention of Bush's admission in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal or the Los Angeles Times. There was nothing on the major wire services. And nothing on CNN, CBS or NBC.

What I'd like in a presidential candidate is someone who, rather than rushing to smear a fellow Democrat and protesting an offense she has no right to feel, might be making an issue out of the really bad things the people in office have been doing.

But no. I guess that wouldn't fit with her 'win votes in the primary while doing John McCain's job' strategy.

Luckily we still have the ACLU.

The American Civil Liberties Union is calling on Congress to demand an independent prosecutor to investigate possible violations by the Bush administration of laws including the War Crimes Act, the federal Anti-Torture Act, and federal assault laws.

'No one in the executive branch of government can be trusted to fairly investigate or prosecute any crimes since the head of every relevant department, along with the president and vice president, either knew or participated in the planning and approval of illegal acts,' said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. 'Congress cannot look the other way; it must demand an independent investigation and independent prosecutor.'

Fredrickson added, 'Congress is duty-bound by the Constitution not only to hold the president, vice president, and all civil officers to account, but it must also send a message to future presidents that it will use its constitutional powers to prevent illegal, and immoral conduct.'

Perhaps, once the punditry and the media have fully examined the burning, important matter of what Obama said, there might be time to talk about the way the Bush administration and its supporters, including John McCain, have throughly corrupted our government.

If they get a chance. They are very busy after all.