Krugman's response-to-readers column, "The President Who Cried Peace," doesn't show up in Google, and I can't find it on the site, since it's disappeared behind the Times Select wall. However, this paragraph caught my eye:

Seth Feldman, Toronto: ...When Bush goes, Iraq implodes and the facts about the war and the rest of his administration start flooding out, you'd better start canceling vacations and learning how to do without sleep. The era of hidden history is coming to a very abrupt end.

Paul Krugman: One of my fears is that we won't actually get to see the hidden history. I guarantee you that there will be a chorus from the wise men of Washington urging the next president to let bygones be bygones. I hope he or she doesn't listen: we need some truth and reconciliation.

Vehement agreement. In fact, as we've said several times, we need a truth and reconciliation** Commission, so that there's some sort of institutional for the investigations.

It's interesting to imagine if any of the Democratic Presidential candidates would go for the idea. Hillary? Not a chance. Barack or Edwards, I can see chances on the order of one in a million. Still.

I wonder who would make a good chair? Hard to find anyone in our dysfunctional ruling class with the right amount of credibility. Somebody apolitical... Non-partisan... How about a Bishop? Say, Gene Robinson?

NOTE BY "reconciliation," I mean "no hard time."