For the life of me I cannot remember
What made us think that we were wise and we’d never compromise
For the life of me I cannot believe we’d ever die for these sins
We were merely freshmen

We’ve tried to wash our hands of all of this
We never talk of our lacking relationships
And how we’re guilt stricken sobbing with our heads on the floor
We fell through the ice when we tried not to slip, we’d say

I can’t be held responsible

“The Freshman” by The Verve Pipe

In the fall of 1998, I matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania. During the welcome weekend for freshmen, then-President Judith Rodin addressed the incoming class. She cited the lyrics of The Verve Pipe’s “The Freshman” imploring that we remember that we are not MERELY freshmen, but active members of the community, and as such we are to hold the highest standards in all that we do, because each of us represents our school in that moment and for the rest of our lives. (At least that’s how I remember it. . .) We don’t get a pass but are to be held accountable for our actions.

I’ve been following the recent news that senior Bush officials (VP Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, then-CIA Director Tenet, John Ashcroft, and Donald Rumsfeld) were not only aware of torture, but were active in planning and regulating these acts committed against various persons of interest in terrorism investigations. Here is ABC’s piece on their 5-month investigation:

The two-thumbs up for torture goes all the way to the Oval Office because in a follow up interview with G.W., he matter-of-factly supported their efforts.

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.”

Last fall, NYTimes columnist Frank Rich wrote about the apathy of the American people who have silently looked the other way while the Bush Administration violated international laws using rendition and torture to interrogate suspects, when they weren’t busy stripping Americans of their civil liberties.

Our humanity has been compromised by those who use Gestapo tactics in our war. The longer we stand idly by while they do so, the more we resemble those “good Germans” who professed ignorance of their own Gestapo. It’s up to us to wake up our somnambulant Congress to challenge administration policy every day. Let the war’s last supporters filibuster all night if they want to. There is nothing left to lose except whatever remains of our country’s good name.

Now that we know that government officials participated in planning waterboarding and equally perverse forms of interrogation, we must hold them accountable and send message that illegal conduct of this nature and flagrant mendacity will not be tolerated.

Tonight after the latest Democratic Party Debate, TrueMajority.org, Brave New Films, US Action , and Democracy for America took the first shot with the Condi Must Go commercial. The full spot is here, and you’ll see an abbreviated version on television.

As of writing this post, more than 33,000 people have signed the petition demanding that all three Presidential candidates ask Condoleezza Rice to resign her post as Secretary of State. As a first step, you too can join the effort and spread the word.

Obama seems ready to put his foot down based on his interview with Will Bunch at the Philadelphia Daily News.

What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that’s already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can’t prejudge that because we don’t have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated. You’re also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we’ve got too many problems we’ve got to solve.

So this is an area where I would want to exercise judgment — I would want to find out directly from my Attorney General — having pursued, having looked at what’s out there right now — are there possibilities of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And I think it’s important– one of the things we’ve got to figure out in our political culture generally is distinguishing betyween really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity. You know, I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I’ve said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for exceptional circumstances. Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law — and I think that’s roughly how I would look at it.

McCain will likely be less sympathethic to such a petition. When asked by a journalist if we are better than torture (in general), he responded

I’ve made it very clear, I’ve made it very clear in my statements and in my support of the Detainee Treatment Act, the Geneva Conventions, etc., that there may be some additional techniques to be used, but none of those would violate the Geneva Conventions, the Detainee Treatment Act… And we cannot ever, in my view, torture any American, that includes waterboarding.

Non-Americans, that’s another story.

I’ve unfortunately not been able to find any Clinton commentary as of yet. (Please leave some links in the comments section if you find them first)

What about you? Are our elected officials above the law? or are you ready to hold them responsible?