Obama Not Looking Back on Torture

Saying his administration will be “looking forward,” Barack Obama suggested he won’t pursue criminal charges against national security officials accused of committing crimes in President Bush’s war on terror. The president-elect also told ABC’s This Week that closing Guantanamo Bay—a key tenet of his campaign platform—is a “challenge” that’s “going to take some time.” In other corners:

• In a rare joint interview with his father, Bush told Fox he refused to “bail out my political party” by withdrawing troops “during the darkest days of Iraq,” and urged the GOP to be more inclusive since it “got whipped” in 2008.
• An adamant Roland Burris declared on Face the Nation that he is "junior senator from Illinois, there is no question." Burris said he didn't want to create "any type of scenes" in assuming the seat, adding that his appointment by Rod Blagojevich "was good for the US and the people of Illinois."
• Dick Cheney had some advice for Joe Biden on CNN's Late Edition: Make sure you know what the boss wants.

(More Barack Obama stories.)