Why Did The Democrats Think They Could Get Away With A "War Crimes" Purge?

For a few weeks I was in terror the United States would be going down a dark road. That is a partisan witch hunt (that includes things like real jail time etc) all under the guise of the torture/enhanced interrogation debate.

To me the morality of these procedures and their future is quite separate from this issue.

One though is just amazed that leading Democrats thought they could pull this off. See these good posts The Tribute Vice Pays to Virtue, Boo Hoo, and it It Gets Worse. Even Jon Stewart is mocking them. See She’s Losing Her Own.

There were several incredible miscalculations

(1) Even the Obama loving Press was outraged. They might be libs but they have some standards. The Selective leaking of Classified information in such amounts to make certain parties look bad crossed a line they could not ignore

(2) The American people poll after poll seem to think that much of this was ok. People might disagree with that but if one is about to go on a political war crime trial purge of the opposition party similar to what we see in Banana Republic you might need the American people behind
you.

(3) Dick Cheney. He might not be the most popular VP ever but it appears the average American is listening to him. I think the Dems forgot he knows the "secrets". He is also incredibly loyal. Please note Cheney's sup rising criticism of Bush that was quite public (there appears to have been quite a dust up) over the NON pardon for Scooter Libby. Cheney appears is not going to just go fishing in Wyoming while awaiting the Federal marshals to come get him.

(4) Leading Democrats were in on it. Heck Harold Ford moderate Democrat of Tenn said just yesterday that he would have voted for it if he knew about it.

(5) Te CIA. Were Democrats paying attention in the Bush Administration. Bush was constantly under attack by elements in the CIA and info was leaked all over the place. Did they really think the CIA would just give them a pass?

As is stated in the "Boo Hoo" link:
Sens. Levin, Durbin and Feinstein are all grousing over release of information concerning the congressional briefings. You can understand why they’re fussing: “with the release of records showing that it briefed members of Congress along the way, the CIA has effectively put lawmakers on the defensive.”

Yeah, can you imagine the nerve of those threatened with prosecution for doing their jobs (and subjected to carefully selected disclosure of material intended to show their work in the worst possible light) pushing back at those whom they briefed? I’m not sure which is more remarkable — the Democrats’ surprise or their public whining. You’d think they would try to clamp down on the “Witch Hunt Comes Back To Bite Congress!” storyline.

This again shows that when a party takes power in a huge land side that often listen to much the base and think they have a much wider mandate than they do. For instance looking back as to Clinton a deal prob ally should have been cut short of Impeachment. But we were on the right were cheered on in our echo chamber and things got of control. The democrats have the same problem.