This is my first diary since June. It has no links, just some thoughts worth recording.
I’m short on sleep, having stayed up real late for the election then had to get up extremely early to appear in a distant federal court. Five hours of driving in the rain today, mainly on unfamiliar roads while short on sleep. BUT I’M SURE HAPPY TODAY!!
Bush’s press conference today was a wonder. I have a theory about what happened.
Last week, Bush swore that he’d stick with Rumsfeld and Cheney for the next two years. (Blogs commented that it was a strange remark, since Bush has no power to dismiss Cheney.)
Bush and Cheney were also vocal during the campaign in sneering at the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group. To W, that represents the Old Farts (H.W.: “wouldn’t be prudent”). Even the presence of the Great Fixer Baker is nothing to W, who thinks he is annointed.
So what happens today? The Republicans get slaughtered in the elections. (OH HAPPY DAY!!!)
And within hours Bush fires Rumsfeld; makes a big point about how he’s meeting with the Baker-Hamilton group early next week; and appoints Bob Gates (a member of the Baker-Hamilton group, and H.W.’s man) as new SecDef.
Here’s what really happened behind the scenes.
Bush has been dumping repeatedly on his father, and on the conservatives, and on everybody else. The frustration has risen to a fever pitch in all directions. Recently many high-level conservatives such as Richard Viguerie, Pat Buchanan, and many others have called for the downfall of the Bush administration.
So this is what I think: Very early this morning there was an INTERVENTION (remember, a few days ago, Sullivan famously said on TV that this “isn’t an election, it’s an intevention”). (It has been notoriously reported that Bush stayed up EXTREMELY LATE last night watching the elections…ALL the way to 11 p.m.!!…so it must have been very early in the morning.)
In the intervention, the Powers That Be (not Bush 1 but the BIG MONEY behind Bush 1), probably in the guise of a call from Pops plus Baker, just simply laid the law down to junior.
The significance of this is not only that Rumsfeld got fired. It’s also that the POWERS have now also fired Cheney. I predict Cheney will be gone, one way or the other, within six months or less.
You heard it here first!
So how would that happen? Libby spills the beans at trial in JAnuary? Cheney resigns?
Well, my preference would be that Conyers and the multitude of facts of treason prevail over Pelosi and Emmanual’s exaggerated reasonableness, and that we impeach Bush and Cheney AT ONCE, making Pelosi the President.
More likely, I think, is that Cheney is going to need to resign real soon for medical reasons.
The new VP will be George Allen, who is going to concede in Virginia after a few more days. (Or so one can dream.)
NO WAY Bush voluntarily fires Rumsfeld. That is the main reason I think he got leaned on big time.
Allen? Are you nuts? (insult not intended, Arm.)
There has to be at least one person in the Executive Suite who has actually read a book – and I don’t mean Mein Kampf (Cliff Notes version).
Yeah, I’m nuts. Of course I’m not promoting Allen for anything, and I guess maybe even George W. Bush wouldn’t support that.
It was an intuitive leap while tired.
There is lots of buzz that Allen is tired and considering abandoning the chase. I can imagine a deal where Allen quietly agrees to accept the VP spot in exchange for dropping the election contest in Virginia, while at the same time Lieberman (that schmuck) agrees (for the good of the country, of course he will say) to switch to the Republican party (doing a reverse Jeffords) so that Allen gets to exercise the deciding vote in the Senate and the Republicans hold the Senate.
Worse conspiracy theories have turned up correct in these strange times.
could be Cheney goes the way of Spiro Agnew for something he allegedly did before he became Vice President.
Halliburton: If Cheney goes missing, Again, he may be off in a truly undisclosed location – this time in a large striped suit.
long article but worth the read.
Or South America?
he has been effectively neutralized/neutered, whatever you choose to call it… and they’re sure as hell not going to anoint Allen. Condi…NO WAY, she’s scheduled for scapegoating very soon, courtesy of /da boyz; McCain?..maybe, but unlikely. Jeb 08?…prob a good bet.
Dim Son will now do what he is told…
How about Karl??
He’s certainly not in a position to be vp…and given his history w/ bush 41 and the Carlisle entourage, plus his dismal performance in the debacle that occurred yesterday, I would posit that he’s headed for a Republican’t Think Tank or obscurity/infamy…take your pick…I like the o/i option myself.
Duh! The “o/i option”?
This serves to give the appearance of change. Rummy had become a libility and was the obvious choice. Gates will simply be more of the same.
If Cheney were to be sent on a lot on hunting trips, no replacement would be needed. Even the most outlandish excuse is worth getting rid of Addington. Oh, Frabjous Day!
Good to see you again, Arminius.
Fascinating thread. I saw your comments on Cheney elsewhere in the blog, and had to check it out.
This might tie-in with information in the Vanity Fair article about how angry the neo-cons are with the administration’s “failure” in Iraq. (Different from our idea of failure, which was being there in the first place, at least for many of us.) I’d hate to think that they had some way to swing the election, but they probably do. And high hopes for someone in the wings in 08 like Jeb (god help us all).
This might also explain the sudden Conyers turnaround on impeachment, perhaps they offered him a deal. No impeachment if he just holds hearings to prompt Cheney to resign. (Or maybe they make Cheney resign in return for no hearings. Although Conyers should have some way to save face and they’d be wise not to piss us off by leaving John Conyers hangng.) Hell, the Halliburton paycheck alone is grounds for jailtime. He’s got counts for criminal indictment that are in the dozens, not even counting Articles.
They’d have progressives all wound up with a false sense of security, and they’d try it all over again with a new guy and a new country in 2008-2012.
I’m paranoid but not nasty, but even I admit there is a whole generation of these think-tank types who have outlived their usefulness (to the extent they had any). I won’t be sad to see them go.
But in the meantime if Cheney is gone, maybe that will give us some breathing room so we can strategize and prepare in case this crew tries more nastiness. Starting with repealing all the Enabling Legislation and finding a way to make attacking Iran impossible. Of course we have a little fly in the ointment there called Israel….
Sorry, thinking while typing. We should not lose heart. Even if they think they swung the election, Greg Palast calculated last week that almost 5 million votes were already stolen – before the election. So we elected most of these people by a more sizeable margin than we realize. And that’s us, not them. We do still have power to self-govern, as long as we are as determined as we were Tuesday. (Not record turnout but top three for a midterm, and the first midterm on record where voters were more concern with the state of the nation than local candidates and issues.) Our ability (i.e., the Consititution) is pretty tatterered and torn, but hey, getting rid of Cheney would make me breathe easier for a few months while I started helping with the mending and preparing.
Thanks for the info.
P.S. A friend of mine was in the room for part of one of the late Iraq strategy sessions – the Friday before the invasion – at Camp David. (Woodward has since reported on this meeting.) Several of the moderates were there, including 41 and Powell, trying to talk Junior down. But he had Cheney and Rove there backing him up on everything, and being the stubborn simpleton he is, he would not back down. (Condi wasn’t there, my friend had the impression that this was an old boys club gathering.)
Point being, he obviously went into this meeting with his mind made up and no one changed it it even when they tried to talk sense into him. You can not talk logically to someone who thinks illogically, as Mr. Dry Drunk 91 IQ does. So that would be the one caveat to losing Cheney. Cheney has made him feel indispensible, validating his anointing by God, so he’s not going to let Cheney go without a fight.