Was Nancy Pelosi's refusal to put the crimes of the Bush regime "on the table" an admission of complicity?

Well, then you're going to have the Republicans yelling about how "that's in the past" and how it's just a liberal witch hunt. Isn't that what Bush and them did every time some issue came up? His press secretary would issue a statement saying "The President has moved on".

For a party that likes to "move on" so much, Republicans seem stuck in a rut.

A full investigation is needed to determine whether or not there was complicity, and to what degree. She was certainly playing politics and admitted as much when she said that if impeachment was pursued it would be counter-productive and seen as nothing more than 'getting even' for the impeachment charges against Clinton. In other words, political expediency trumps justice. All she did was demonstrate she was spineless and that she was willing to give the previous administration a free pass and a blind eye on wrong doing for the sake of appearances and convenience.

Perhaps to some extent. Some Democrats might turn out to have blood on their hands if a real investigation were launched. As much as I would love to see Bushco face the music, anything run by the Democrats will be a managed affair intended for political gain rather than a truly independent investigation. We would get another 9/11 Commission.

Only in the sense that it's an acceptance of reality. I think it would be far more costly (both fiscally and politically) to the country to try and put a former President and his staff on trial than would be gained from sending the message.

Pelosi doesn't want to expend the amount of political capital it would take solely for the sake of retribution, and Congress has more important things to do now.

Yes but not only of her. I see people here opening their eyes to the possibility that these crimes were bipartisan and that's positive but to make Nancy Pelosi the sole scape goat is another easy way out . I asked if she should step down for her knowledge of war crimes over a year ago, my point is not to defend her

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnFH....

As far as I'm concerned she should have no political future and likely face prosecution but still I maintain to solely blame this on her or the others who got the tour without looking at the responsibility of the Democratic party as a whole, the current administration included is an easy way out. A Hollywodian way of looking at politics. Good guys and bad guys and if we just get rid of the bad guys everything will be alright. Pelosi acted as a loyal member of the Democratic party. They and the undemocratic nature of the two party system are the major issue here more than individual actors though that doesn't mean in any way individual responsibilities should be excused or minimized.

The 1990s saw a non-stop conspiracy by right-wing forces, backed by the Republican Party, the courts and the media, to destabilize the Clinton administration, culminating in December of 1998 in the first-ever impeachment of an elected president. This was followed by the theft of the 2000 election, in which a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court sanctioned the suppression of votes and installed George W. Bush in the White House.

There followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which were seized on as the pretext for embarking on a right-wing agenda of foreign aggression and domestic repression long in preparation.

9/11 ushered in the “war on terror”—an undeclared and indeterminate faux war that provided the overarching, bipartisan framework for US military aggression, first in Afghanistan, and then, on the basis of outright lies, Iraq. The “war on terror” served as well as the pretext for the erection of the framework for a police state—the Patriot Act, the Homeland Security Department, the Northern Command, the vast expansion of domestic spying, the establishment of gulags in Guantánamo, Iraq and Afghanistan and CIA “black sites” around the world, the denial of habeas corpus, indefinite detention, rendition and torture.

All of this took place with the complicity of Congress and without any resistance from the Democratic Party. The vast and regressive changes in the structure of American society had fundamentally altered the social physiognomy and political outlook of the liberal wing of the ruling class, eroding any previous attachment to social reform or the defense of democratic rights.

Large sections of the constituency for liberalism had profited from the policies of social reaction at home and imperialist aggression abroad, sharing in the general enrichment of the most privileged layers of American society. They had—and have today—little interest in seeking to rein in the financial oligarchy and the intelligence-military establishment. Their greatest fear is an eruption of class struggle and a challenge to the status quo from the working class.

The death agony of American democracy is inseparable from the failure of US and world capitalism. The growth of authoritarian tendencies becomes all the more dangerous under conditions of deepening economic crisis. The prospect of growing popular resistance to unemployment and poverty means that the national security apparatus will be directed more and more openly against the American working class.

The only basis for a mass movement in defense of democratic rights is the broad mass of working people, guided by a socialist and internationalist perspective. Such a movement must demand unequivocally the criminal investigation and prosecution of all those responsible for torture and all the other war crimes with which it is associated.

Complicity or cover up or both But it's not only her it's the rest of the neo cons in Obama's cabinet What a difference Ralph Nader would have made.

It is beginning to look a lot more murkier than it previously did... I am extremely worried that Obama and the new Dem Congress is just an extension of Bush and his Freedom restricting policies.

Even the Fascist government in Britain seem to be comfortable with this new administration when in my view they should be worried that Blair's lies should come to haunt them.

I doubt it, we all can recall how the republicans all but shut down the government while chasing Bill Clinton and Monica's soiled dress. With the mess the village idiot left behind we do not have that luxury, there are more pressing issues. Hopefully those issues you mention will be dealt with in the not too distant future.

Politics are one thing national security is another.

Aside from her dishonerable ways...

Maybe she realized Bush Didn't do anything illegal. Everyone just seems to accept that there were crimes commited because the media used that word...wake up people, it is political.