Will Obama Be Investigated After Letting Rove Off the Hook?

From the outset of his administration, President Barack Obama has said that he will "look forward, not backwards" when it comes to apparent crimes by the George W. Bush administration.

What has been Obama's reward? Republicans now are pushing for an investigation of his administration over alleged dealmaking connected to senatorial campaigns.

You heard that right. Karl Rove and other "loyal Bushies" apparently will escape scrutiny, while Obama could be under fire for his involvement with U.S. Senate campaigns in Pennsylvania and Colorado.

The latest outrage came over the weekend from GOP national chairman Michael Steele. Reports Associated Press:

The GOP national chairman, Michael Steele, used his party’s weekly radio and Internet address to keep the political heat on the Democratic White House by urging appointment of a special investigator or independent counsel "who can sort out the facts."

The White House has acknowledged discussing possible jobs with senatorial candidates Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania and Andrew Romanoff in Colorado—both of whom declined to step aside from challenging White-House backed incumbents. White House defenders have argued that it’s sometimes necessary to avoid messy primary fights.

In our view, the Obama administration should have kept its nose out of the U.S. Senate races. But that kind of dealmaking apparently is common in political circles. We've seen no sign that there is anything improper, much less criminal, about the White House actions.

But Michael Steele and other Republicans now have a bone that they apparently aren't going to easily give up. U.S. Rep. Darell Issa (R-CA) and key Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee already had been pushing for an investigation.

Attorney General Eric Holder, so far, has fended off such demands. But what if Republicans win one or both houses of Congress in November--and that could happen if the GOP is successful in laying blame for the BP oil spill at Obama's feet?

Could we see Obama officials, perhaps the very ones who turned a blind eye toward Bush-era wrongdoing, being investigated while Rove & Co. go free?

This is just the latest example of a lesson that Democrats never seem to get: Republicans are like a bunch of coiled rattlesnakes, who have no sense of justice or fairness and will strike blindly at the first opportunity. In fact, we have posited numerous times that quite a few Republicans are sociopaths, the kind of individuals who have no conscience and no empathy for others. They look out for No. 1 and nobody else.

What are Michael Steele and his brethren after? The AP tells us:

Steele wants "an impartial referee" to get to the bottom of what the White House offered, who authorized it, who knew about it and "what was the expected trade-off for accepting the offer?"

He said President Barack Obama’s dealmaking falls far short of his promise to run the most open administration in history.

Would Steele accept an "impartial referee" to examine George W. Bush's actions? Not on your life.

But that's how sociopaths behave; they care only about their own interests.

Obama still has time to take off the blinders and give his OK for a full-scale investigation of Bush-era crimes. But it appears that he wants to continue using a gentle touch in dealing with GOP rattlesnakes. That's a good way to get yourself bit.

Will the president continue to "look forward, not backwards"? If he does, our guess is that he will deeply regret that decision someday.