Unfortunately, our congressman in Birmingham is in the pocket of Alabama Power, ATnT and the Business Council, so he is not in the right political place on these issues. Sad, but true.

He is also big friends with SPLC, which does good work, but now also is on the federal dole to spy on the KKK. Unfortunately, this does not get us liberal bloggers off the hook around here.

Of course, Obama cannot single-handled abolish the Patriot Act. He could call a news conference and ask Congress to repeal it immediately and then sign the repeal legislation as soon as it arrives at the White House.

He could also, for instance, direct that remaining Guantanamo detainees against whom there is enough evidence to be tried in regular US courts.

That the Obama administration has fallen down by preserving any features of the Bush regime is, however, explainable, even if not necessarily ethical:

1. As documented in Gene Healy’s 2008 book “The Cult of the Presidency,” incoming presidents, or their advisers anyway, are loathe to give up powers accreted during the previous administration, no matter the ideological differences. Healy notes that, with a handful of exceptions, no president since Teddy Roosevelt has voluntarily surrendered new powers or claims to power.

2. The Obama administration is replete with Washington insiders, although there are fewer than a typical administration. Insiders, whether Democrat or Republican, have that peculiar Byzantine worldview that comes from living inside the Beltway for too long a time. Their thoughts, words and deeds are, at root, pretty similar when studied closely.

3. Obama has many fish to fry, and he’s getting a lot of cold water thrown on the campfire already by the Republicans on Capitol Hill. Practical politics dictates that he do as much as possible to neutralize them and stay focused on his agenda. If he spent any significant time focusing on the horrors of the Bush era, he would both lose that focus and, into the bargain, put the Republicans back into the limelight, even if they were there to defend what cannot be sanely defended.

4. The president, as Obama candidly admitted today at a Town Hall meeting about health care in Green Bay, cannot simply dictate to Congress what he wants. The 535 ego maniacs who sit on Capitol Hill were elected in their own right, and cannot easily be trumped by a grand executive program. In fact, the last time that happened was during the short-lived honeymoon of Lyndon Johnson, and the only other time it happened was during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt.

All that said, I still agree with Rowland 1000 percent. Unfortunately, the president does not yet see how deep and profound the hope is that Americans place in his new administration. The insider-obstacles, insider-thinking, bureaucratic inertia, etc., could all be swept aside if Obama would fashion a five point or ten point agenda and campaign for it, as he did today for health care reform in Wisconsin, around the country.

If President Obama would do that, Rowland Scherman would not have to write laments such as this one.

Get moving on cleaning up the Justice Department, especially in Alabama.

Reaching out in a non-partisan way is fine PR, but it is obvious the Republicans will fight you behind your back and on talk radio and Fox News every time you turn around.

You won. It’s time to bring on the change you promised and kick some ass…