Democratic In-Fighting: Executive Branch

The media has done a good job showing the battles within the Democratic party vis-a-vis Congress, but they also exist within the Executive branch of government. Two examples that haven't gotten the attention they deserve involve torture prosecution and, in a story that is just breaking, antitrust enforcement.

President Obama has repeatedly stated that he wishes to look forward and not open prosecutions of any Bush administration policy, but a few weeks ago Attorney General Holder announced that he is "considering having a prosecutor investigate allegations of CIA torture of suspected terrorists, The Washington Post said." He has, however, also announced that the prosecutions would be limited to those who committed acts that went above and beyond the ones outlined in the famous torture memos and NOT to the architects of the program. This viewpoint has been eloquently challenged by the progressive Democrats in a letter to the AG by Senator Russ Feingold. I hope Holder listens...

Back in May, President Obama's antitrust chief, Christine Varney, announced that the Justice Department “will be aggressively pursuing cases where monopolists try to use their dominance in the marketplace to stifle competition and harm consumers." Apparently, the Bush Administration didn't just stop enforcing the antitrust laws already on the books, but enacted a legal policy that impeded the government’s ability to fight anticompetitive conduct by monopolistic companies in court. Despite the announcement and Mrs Varney making it clear that courts should no longer refer to the Bush administration policy, other departments within the Executive Branch are refusing to go along.

Why can't Democrats get their house in order and govern as one? It's the one aspect of politics that the Dems need to learn from the Republicans. For good or for bad, the Republican party is great at unifying their message and getting their legislative agenda passed. Personally, I suspect lobbying contributions have something to do with it.