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Dan Froomkin, “Return to the Moral High Ground,” White House Watch, WP (23 Jan ’09):

Dana Priest writes in The Washington Post: “President Obama yesterday eliminated the most controversial tools employed by his predecessor against terrorism suspects. With the stroke of his pen, he effectively declared an end to the ‘war on terror,’ as President George W. Bush had defined it.... “While Obama says he has no plans to diminish counterterrorism operations abroad, the notion that a president can circumvent long-standing U.S. laws simply by declaring war was halted by executive order in the Oval Office.” [Emphasis added]

If this executive order has any meaning beyond a simple statement of Obama’s preferred approach within a legitimate policy context, then a subsequent president can disagree—and the notion that a president can circumvent long-standing U.S. laws simply by declaring war will be restored by executive order. The solution to this dilemma is to punish those who break the rules in order to steal the game. If Obama doesn’t have the stomach to do so, there’s a simple solution: permanent staycations for Bush admin alumni. The US has outsourced just about everything else—why not outsource justice?