Endgame

Everything is falling into place, in a rather frightening way.

The White House knows, everyone except Bush and probably Cheney and maybe Rove if he's drunk his own Kool-Aid, that the Iraq War has failed. They are failures. And they are just trying to get through their days...good luck with history:

White House officials fear that the last pillars of political support among Senate Republicans for President Bush’s Iraq strategy are collapsing around them, according to several administration officials and outsiders they are consulting. They say that inside the administration, debate is intensifying over whether Mr. Bush should try to prevent more defections by announcing his intention to begin a gradual withdrawal of American troops from the high-casualty neighborhoods of Baghdad and other cities.

The scary part of the NY Times article:

The views of many of the participants in that discussion were unclear, and the officials interviewed could not provide any insight into what Vice President Dick Cheney had been telling President Bush.

All the Republicans in Congress have finally realized that they are screwed as long as Bush holds that office. as long as the War goes on. Andrew Sullivan has a terrific piece in today's Sunday Times, "Emperor Bush Unnerves Republicans". It's worth a read, particularly the second half. Here's the ending:

The only thing Washington loves less than a lame-duck president is a completely unpredictable lame-duck president. They are scared that he could do anything, without real consultation. The Libby decision was made just like the decision to author-ise torture: it was done outside the normal channels of government, blindsiding key aides, and shocking the establishment. If he did this once – and he has done it many times – he could do it again. And so, for all his failure and polling dive, he retains the capacity for surprise. Which is the capacity for relevance.

This is all he’s got left. The mighty power of the presidency, a predilection for sudden action, and absolutely nothing to lose. This lame duck, in other words, could quack or fly without warning. And Washington, for all its increasingly open contempt for him, is rattled by the possibility. They don’t know what’s coming; but they know they’ll have to adjust.

In this, perhaps for the first time, even Republicans are having a familiar experience. They now know what it’s like to be a European with this president. And they are longing for it to be over.

All they ever had was the fear card. And now they're even scaring their own. Nearly 40% of the country favors impeaching Mister Bush. I say impeach Cheney first, guilty with Libby, filthy guilty with everything. But it's still a growing number. He may lie about it, but he's not going to reverse himself. It's all just their corporation. It's in their DNA.

How bad is it in Iraq? After a 250 weekend exploded corpse count, the two main factions of the Iraqi government are BOTH urging their people to arm themselves. That's right: defend your family with firepower. As in: No Rule of Law.

The New York Times said in an extraordinarily long editorial this weekend to be orderly about it but just get out. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) senses it is time to set up a vote on the exit. Meanwhile there's an ex-Karl Rove aide whom the Cheney/Bush Administration is trying to block from testifying in Congress on the politicized Federal Prosecutors crime investigation. There's a potential visit to the Senate Judiciary Committee by successful Libby prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

What makes this all so scary is that there are reports that, if true, up the ante with Iran nuclear development stand-off, about tunneling in mountains, most likely to hide or shelter something big, related and dangerous.

At a time when we need true, intelligent, reliable leadership more than ever, all we may get is World War III. I don't believe any of this would be happening had Al Gore been appointed President rather than Mister Bush.

I've noted a number of times that I expect Bush to leave his term, should that come to pass, radioactive. Even if Cheney gets painted as The Influencer, it's The Decider who will seem like a ghoul, a nightmare figure to haunt the dreams of Iraqi children and ours. His henchmen are already unpopular, even if retired.

But if you want to know how unpopular he has become, check out tourism in Crawford, TX, per The Houston Chronicle:

From a wooden bench in front of a shop selling mementos of "The Western White House," tourist Chuck Yorde wondered aloud why he seemed to be the only visitor in town.

"If his poll numbers were up there above 50-60 percent, this place would probably be a little more jumping," said Yorde, surveying the empty parking spots up and down Lone Star Parkway...

...Shuttered storefronts and eroding retail sales figures show tourism and the Bush memorabilia business are slumping in this once-sleepy farm-and-ranch town of 732 residents.

A for-sale sign is the only thing in the smudged window of the turn-of-the-century, two-story brick building that once housed the Crawford Country Style store. "The numbers just weren't working," said Norma Nelson Crow, who closed the shop at the beginning of the year.

Republicanism. Good for the economy.