Interesting - Ayers and Yoo

The far right is obsessed with the question of Bill Ayers, much more obsessed than with the war in Iraq or Afghanistan or the Palin farce or the financial meltdown. Their obsession is unseemly but it is not, alas, without any basis in truth. I find Bill Ayers' refusal to disown his use of political violence in the 1960s to be repulsive. If I were forced to meet him, I would not shake his hand. Obama's fault, however, is not being a terrorist sympathizer, as Palin absurdly declares to mob cheers. Obama's fault is in being a go-along-to-get-along Hyde Park liberal. You can see why he made the decision not to wreck polite liberal society in Chicago by calling out these former thugs. But I do not admire him for it. It's a corner he cut. He deserves to be criticized for it - if not in the fascistic way Hannity does it.

But the question of association raises broader questions. I don't think I could serve on a board with Ayers in good conscience. But neither could I serve on a board or participate in an organization that employs a war criminal. John Yoo is such a war criminal, a man who gave oral consent to war crimes and then provided phony legal cover for torturing suspects. He is responsible for policies that have led to th death-by-torture of over a dozen individuals, some of whom clearly innocent of all charges, and the brutal torture of countless more. Without Yoo's green light, and willingness to sign off on torture, these people would be alive or suscaptible to real and reliable non-coercive interrogation. If Obama deserves some censure for consorting with Ayers, why is there no censure in Washington or Berkeley for consorting with a war criminal? Why is Ayers anthema and Yoo not?

And it's really making me think.  I live in Berkeley.  My husband goes to school at Berkeley and I am a lawyer.  It's not totally implausable that my path will cross with Yoo's one day, and perhaps at a professional function for either myself or my husband.  It's also in the realm of possibility that we'd be members of a local bar association chapter or something.

If I met him, what would I do?  I think torture is absolutely reprehensible, and I'm truly disgusted with every administration official that has been a part of implementing the policy.

Would I refuse to shake his hand and make a scene?  This would absolutely hurt my (and/or my husband's) short term professional advancement, and quite possibly my long term professional advancement. Or would I make pleasantries so as to not make a scene and hurt either my professional advancement or my husband's.

When I think about it this way, it's easy to see the quandry that Obama was in.  It's easy to say that he should have walked away or ignored this man's help, but when you actually think about what that involves, the decision becomes much, much more difficult.