Reply #24: Politico & CBS Early Show: Featuring McCain on "Witch Hunts" and "Banana Republics".

[chill_wind]

and "criminalizing legal advice".

McCain: Obama starting 'witch hunt'

By ANDY BARR | 4/23/09 11:49 AM EDT

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned Thursday that any attempt by the Obama administration to prosecute the Bush-era lawyers who wrote memos signing off on waterboarding would start a “witch hunt.”

“If you criminalize legal advice, which is basically what they're going to do, then it has a terribly chilling effect on any kind of advice and counsel that the president might receive,” McCain said during an interview on CBS’s “Early Show.”

(...)

“Look, I didn't agree, as you said, with the techniques — and I'd be glad to continue that debate with people. But to criminalize their legal counsel, unless you can prove that they intentionally violated existing laws or ethics, then this is going to turn into a witch hunt,” he said.

McCain compared the potential prosecutions with the actions of “banana republics” that “prosecute people for actions they didn't agree with under previous administrations.”

“To go back on a witch hunt that could last for a year or so, frankly, is going to be bad for the country, bad for future presidents — precedents that may be set by this, and certainly nonproductive in trying to pursue the challenges we face,” he said.

source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21627.html

(bold-emphasis mine)

edit to add CBS link also:

McCain: Torture Probe Will Be A "Witch Hunt"


http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/04/23/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4963412.shtml