I was going to call this diary “Obama's Greatest challenge” or some other lofty title, but after thinking about it, it's not really that great of a challenge at all.It just requires a bit of courage.

What I'm talking about is the story that broke over the weekend, which shouldn't have surprised anyone with a functioning brain stem:

Democratic senators on Sunday called for an investigation into reports that Dick Cheney, the former vice-president, instructed the Central Intelligence Agency not to tell Congress about a secret counter-terrorism programme.

Of course, none of this rises to the Clinton oral transgressions, right? Expectedly, the GOP is the one supplying the outrage here, promising a “scorched earth” policy, and raging a holy hell war if the administration looks into the matter further.

Below the jump for more of the madness…

Now, in a sense, Obama screwed the pooch early on on this one, when pressed about what to do about the endless Bush crimes, he gave that “we need to look forward, not backwards” bullshit, so he's going to obviously have to backpedal on his “don't rock the boat for the sake of political expediency” comments. As usual, Obama's worst mistakes and blunders tend to come from one thing: pandering to Republicans. You'd think he'd learned his lesson by now, him being a smart guy, and all, right?

So, now we have the tired and true Book of Republican Outrage and Obfuscation here in full play. We have this classic one from McCain (why does this guy still get any face time on TV?):

“The question is: Do we want America's image harmed more by dragging this out further and further?”

…which conveniently ignores the fact that perhaps if McCain was so concerned about “America's image”, he would've done something to stop all these nasty things we've been doing for the last few years instead of enabling it.

Then, in the same article, there's the “playing politics/impugning the patriotism of the criminals” line from NY Rep. Peter King (he of the “we don't need to acknowlege slavery” fame):

“It's a wrong and shameful criminalizing political differences,” Mr. King said during an interview with The Washington Times. “I would find it very hard to work with the administration on bipartisan issues if the attorney general and the administration start going after patriotic Americans who have dedicated their lives to protecting us.”

But King is a completist in terms of the playbook. He has to also throw in some Euro-bashing and Palinesque pandering to anti-intellectuals, when he also said this is “an effort to appease Europeans and U.S. intellectuals,” because, you know, we can't have smart people making decisions about justice and other trivialities, right?

I could go on forever with the excuses, but I won't, as if you're reading this, you've heard them all before.

Thankfully, it seems like Atty. Gen. Holder might be moving forward on this, regardless of the whining, and on the surface, he's not playing politics:

“I hope that whatever decision I make would not have a negative impact on the president's agenda,” he told the magazine. “But that can't be a part of my decision.”  

It's good to hear that kind of talk, but more often than not from Dems, we get a lot of talk and very little action. We've seen too often how many times, simply in the face of GOP bloviation, we've let war under false pretenses, torture, and countless other crimes go unpunished. It's getting to the point where one has to wonder what has to happen to prod them into actually holding someone, anyone accountable.And given what they've gotten away with, imagining that is a scary prospect indeed.

The chioice is really simple, and in some ways, I personally feel this as a make-or-break moment for Obama. He can stand up for the rule of law or he can continue to care what batshit insane Republicans think (the “rule of whiners”). I don't have high expectations, but I'm ready to be surprised.