Bernstein calls for "THE INVESTIGATION"

In Vanity Fair, Karl Bernstein wrote an opinion piece calling for one large overarching investigation into all of the Bush administration's lies, scandals, and illegal acts.

Bernstein's premise is that such an investigation could be undertaken by the current Republican congress and thus carried out in a fair, bipartisan fashion. His argument is that the Republicans might launch this endeavor in an effort to save their own political skins in the 2006 midterms. (He's still an idealist, isn't he?)

Outlining the possible illegal activities and claims of power, NSA warrantless wiretapping, torture, Abughraib, and Guantanamo, for example, as well as systemic lying and unnecessary claims of privilege, both to advance policy and cover political embarrassments, Bernstein asserts that the time has finally come for a reckoning.

After Nixon's resignation, it was often said that the system had worked. Confronted by an aberrant president, the checks and balances on the executive by the legislative and judicial branches of government, and by a free press, had functioned as the founders had envisioned.

The system has thus far failed during the presidency of George W. Bush—at incalculable cost in human lives, to the American political system, to undertaking an intelligent and effective war against terror, and to the standing of the United States in parts of the world where it previously had been held in the highest regard.

There was understandable reluctance in the Congress to begin a serious investigation of the Nixon presidency. Then there came a time when it was unavoidable. That time in the Bush presidency has arrived.