If there is one person who has intimate knowledge of the playboook of corrupt administrations, it is John Dean.
While we are all rejoicing at the sound of the republican edifice crumbling, I am very afraid.
Hastert will not resign
Cheney and Rove have said that republicans will keep control of congress.
Conservative blogs have reported that Rove has PROMISED an October Surprise.
These are not simply speculations. And for that reason, John Dean's take on this in his essay is well-worth a second reading.
THEY MUST KEEP CONTROL. THEY HAVE TO THEY HAVE NO CHOICE. THIS IS THE MOST DANGEROUS TIME AMERICA HAS EVER FACED.
Seem like an over-statement? Considering the fact that all past dangers America has faced throughout our history, at least our enemy was not already in control of our government.
In 2004, during the entire month of October, the MSM persistently asked, "What will be the October Surprise?" daily. And then on the Friday before the election- surprise surprise- a new video of Osama Bin Laden airs COMMENTING on the election. Immediately all talk of October Surprise disappears; grave and serious reporting punctuated by the perpetual re-playing of the "new" Osama tape WITH translation again and again for the entire weekend before the election replaces the talk of any surprise.
We can count on the media to call a 5 year old Republican sex-scandal cover-up "a possible October surprise courtesy of the Democrats" but one dare not question or gravity of intention and severity when terrorism is invoked.
In John Dean's findlaw.com essay written back in the spring, he pulls some of the presidential psychological profiling from his book Conservatives without Conscience.
In the interest of time (and keeping my job), I will simply quote Dean:
The Danger of the "Active/Negative" President Facing A Congressional Rout Active/negative presidents -- Barber tells us, and history shows -- are driven, persistent, and emphatic. Barber says their pervasive feeling is "I must." Barber's collective portrait of Wilson, Hoover, Johnson and Nixon now fits George W. Bush too: "He sees himself as having begun with a high purpose, but as being continually forced to compromise in order to achieve the end state he vaguely envisions," Barber writes. He continues, "Battered from all sides . . . he begins to feel his integrity slipping away from him . . . [and] after enduring all this for longer than any mortal should, he rebels and stands his ground. Masking his decision in whatever rhetoric is necessary, he rides the tiger to the end." Bush's policies have incorporated risk from the outset. A few examples make that clear. He took the risk that he could capture Osama bin Laden with a small group of CIA operatives and U.S. Army Special forces - and he failed. He took the risk that he could invade Iraq and control the country with fewer troops and less planning than the generals and State Department told him would be possible - and he failed. He took the risk that he could ignore the criminal laws prohibiting torture and the warrantless wiretapping of Americans without being caught - he failed. And he's taken the risk that he can cut the taxes for the rich and run up huge financial deficits without hurting the economy. This, too, will fail, though the consequences will likely fall on future presidents and generations who must repay Bush's debts. What We Can Expect From Bush in the Future, Based on Barber's Model As the 2006 midterm elections approach, this active/negative president can be expected to take further risks. If anyone doubts that Bush, Cheney, Rove and their confidants are planning an "October Surprise" to prevent the Republicans from losing control of Congress, then he or she has not been observing this presidency very closely. What will that surprise be? It's the most closely held secret of the Administration. How risky will it be? Bush is a whatever-it-takes risk-taker, the consequences be damned. One possibility is that Dick Cheney will resign as Vice President for "health reasons," and become a senior counselor to the president. And Bush will name a new vice president - a choice geared to increase his popularity, as well as someone electable in 2008. It would give his sinking administration a new face, and new life. The immensely popular Rudy Giuliani seems the most likely pick, if Giuliani is willing. (A better option for Giuliani might be to hold off, and tacitly position himself as the Republican anti-Bush in 2008.) But Condoleezza Rice, John McCain, Bill Frist, and more are possibilities. Bush's second and more likely, surprise could be in the area of national security: If he could achieve a Great Powers coalition (of Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, and so on) presenting a united-front "no nukes" stance to Iran, it would be his first diplomatic coup and a political triumph. But more likely, Bush may mount a unilateral attack on Iran's nuclear facilities - hoping to rev up his popularity. It's a risky strategy: A unilateral hit on Iran may both trigger devastating Iran-sponsored terrorist attacks in Iraq, with high death tolls, and increase international dislike of Bush for his bypass of the U.N. But as an active/negative President, Bush hardly shies away from risk.) Another rabbit-out-of-the-hat possibility: the capture of Osama bin Laden. If there is no "October Surprise," I would be shocked. And if it is not a high-risk undertaking, it would be a first. Without such a gambit, and the public always falls for them, Bush is going to lose control of Congress. Should that happen, his presidency will have effectively ended, and he will spend the last two years of it defending all the mistakes he has made during the first six, and covering up the errors of his ways. There is, however, the possibility of another terrorist attack, and if one occurred, Americans would again rally around the president - wrongly so, since this is a presidency that lives on fear-mongering about terror, but does little to truly address it. The possibility that we might both suffer an attack
Now some may say I am wringing my hands, but let me state that unequivocally I AM wringing my hands.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/...
Flip through all of Dean's posts on Findlaw.com and you will see a man predict this entire administration.