Don't get your hopes up, folks.

It's not necessarily Obama's job to clean up the mess his predecessor made. His job, in less than a week, is to be the President of the United States. The head of 1 of 3 branches of government.

Congress' job -- then, now and when Obama is the POTUS -- is to police the POTUS, tell him what laws to enforce and make sure, through oversight, that the POTUS and all those who serve in the Executive Branch follow the law. Another job it has, IMHO, is to not make laws that allow the POTUS to hide what it's doing from Congress, the Courts or the "American people."

Obama's got a new hat to wear. It's unlikely, without Congressional investigations which produce actual evidence, that Obama's DOJ will do much other than stop the bad practices going forward. Obama, as POTUS, wants to look forward. While admirable, this only puts the problem off to the next POTUS who, like Cheney / Bush, don't take so kindly to the rule of law.

Congress, however, has that same hat it's always had and which it has allowed to grow moldy in the closet for the past 8 years. It can choose to ensure that the law is the law and is upheld and followed. It's time for Congressional leaders to do their jobs. Once the "facts" come out - and a judge just yesterday order the Bush administration to turn over certain documents to the Obama administration rather than the Archives - the snowball, if one is created, will take care of itself.

I think that it's critical to publicly air the facts, many of which are widely acknowledged, and seek criminal prosecution if laws were broken by members of the Bush administration. I think it would send a clear signal to other nations that the United States is a nation of laws (really!), but this is an important domestic lesson as well. A young person growing up in this era would not be wrong to conclude that the truth doesn't matter and that one should lie, cheat, and steal to gain financial (or other) advantage. We can't expect people to follow the law if our elected officials don't follow the law. It's that simple. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant," as Louis Brandeis wrote. It is time to let the sun shine in.

Consumetheconsumer, I agree to the extent that Congress has the oversight responsibility over the Executive Branch. Remember, the only reason for the existence of the "Executive" Branch is to "execute" the laws enacted by Congress (not forgetting the Prez's signature). If you bother to read Article 2 of the Constitution, you will find that the President has NO POWERS outside that given to him (hopefully someday, her) by Congress and tons of by advise and council of the Senate. However, if anyone bothers to read history, it is the conduct of past presidents that set precedents for future behavior. Such as, the peace transfer of power which was given us by President G. Washington along with dozens of other behavior that has shape the presidency away for that of a monarchy/dictator. Now we just had a President, namely G.W. Bush, who publicly expressed the desire to be a Dictator, and, with Chaney, et al.'s help and enthusiastic aide from Fox News, unsuccessfully attempted a coupe to overturn the US Constitution. For this high-treason, they all should, including, Bush, Chaney, Rice, Gonzoles, etc and not forgetting Linbaugh, Hannity, O'Riley, etc., (I would include Murdock, but he is not American and has no obligation to the US-which is why he should not own any American news organization. Could you imagine a Soviet national owning CBS in 1980)

In any case, Congress needs to insist that the President obey the law or impeach him (Shame on that traitor Nancy Pelosi for taking impeachment of the table. The only thing I can think of as why is she is a knowing participant in the Bush Administration's ongoing criminal operation.

Along with Congress, the new President has a duty to the Constitution and the People of the United States to say that it is unacceptable to wage aggressive war, loot the treasury, torture, violate the Bill of Right (and Bush has violated every one of them), and the countless other crimes committed and THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES! By the way, didn't Bush, in 2000, run on restoring dignity to Oval Office and personal responsibility? It is time for him to make good on at least the PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY part. Bush has already irrevocably soiled the Oval Office. PE Obama's first order of business it to clean it up!

Justice doesn't belong to the President, nor even to Congress. Justice belongs to the people. One of the biggest problems confronting our government today is an almost total lack of respect for and confidence in our political leaders. Failure to pursue justice in the face of such obvious crimes as these only exacerbates our distrust of politicians, giving the us, the people, the perception that there are two classes of justice--one for regular people, and one for politicians which amounts to nothing more than quid pro quo justice.