Speaking at Georgetown University this week, Senator Patrick Leahy has proposed something like a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the United States.

That sounds like a great idea, a way to come together and heal conflict, but there’s something in his argument, seen below, that smells like a hidden decay.

Senator Leahy protests that those people who want to actually hold Bush Administration officials accountable for their crimes run the risk of creating delay and division. Is he right? Is enforcement of the law truly divisive? If so, why are ordinary criminal prosecuted for their crimes? Wouldn’t their arrest and conviction rip communities apart, if prosecution were just a dangerous distraction?

No, what Senator Leahy is saying is that the powerful elites who break the law should be exempt from prosecution. He’s saying The rest of us will remain subject to it.

Leahy’s comments:

“As to the best course of action for bringing a reckoning for the actions of the past eight years, there has been heated disagreement. There are some who resist any effort to investigate the misdeeds of the recent past. Indeed, some Republican Senators tried to extract a devil’s bargain from the Attorney General nominee in exchange for their votes, a commitment that he would not prosecute for anything that happened on President Bush’s watch. That is a pledge no prosecutor should give, and Eric Holder did not, but because he did not, it accounts for many of the partisan votes against him.

There are others who say that, even if it takes all of the next eight years, divides this country, and distracts from the necessary priority of fixing the economy, we must prosecute Bush administration officials to lay down a marker. Of course, the courts are already considering congressional subpoenas that have been issued and claims of privilege and legal immunities – and they will be for some time.

There is another option that we might also consider, a middle ground. A middle ground to find the truth. We need to get to the bottom of what happened — and why — so we make sure it never happens again.

One path to that goal would be a reconciliation process and truth commission. We could develop and authorize a person or group of people universally recognized as fair minded, and without axes to grind. Their straightforward mission would be to find the truth. People would be invited to come forward and share their knowledge and experiences, not for purposes of constructing criminal indictments, but to assemble the facts. If needed, such a process could involve subpoena powers, and even the authority to obtain immunity from prosecutions in order to get to the whole truth. Congress has already granted immunity, over my objection, to those who facilitated warrantless wiretaps and those who conducted cruel interrogations. It would be far better to use that authority to learn the truth.”