Still on vacation in Australia.  The above Aboriginal paintings are from Kakadu National Park, about three hours outside of Darwin, and depict Creation Ancestors Namondjok (top center), his wife Barrginj (center left, below Namondjok’s leg), and Namarrgon, the Lightning Man (top right).

Over at Andrew Sullivan’s blog, a reader writes that he believes Obama is unlikely to prosecute former Bush Administration officials for war crimes, and cites Abraham Lincoln to make his case:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

This analysis bothers me, because it implies there could only be one motive — vengeance — for enforcing our nation’s laws.

I think Obama urgently needs to prosecute lawbreaking members of the Bush Administration: Not as payback, but as a critical step in restoring the rule of law. As a step toward preventing the next generation of Nixonistas from romping into the Oval Office and violating laws with impunity, relying on Obama’s precedent that “bipartisan outreach” means forgiving the other party’s crimes.

I don’t want vengeance. I want the law enforced without regard to party affiliation, which would be a welcome change from what the party of Rove and Gonzales has wrought these past eight years. Instead of heeding Lincoln’s call to forgiveness, Obama’s Justice Department should follow a more recent creed: There are no Republican criminals and no Democratic criminals. There are just criminals.

Last night we booked our flights — this year we’ll be in Australia for Christmas and New Year’s. Every year we spend Thanksgiving with my parents and Christmas in Australia, since the Aussies don’t celebrate the American holiday (expats notwithstanding) — but this is the first time since ’05 that we’ll be Down Under for New Year’s.