Okay, folks- we've voted, we've volunteered, we've done everything we can possibly do. While we wait for the results to come in, I thought it might be pleasantly distracting to prognosticate on the POST-election future. My predictions about Scooter, Rumsfeld, and Iraq are below the fold.
To start off, believe it or not, I'm thinking Rummy is finally toast. Karl and Dubya obviously decided some time ago that they and their party were going to run on Iraq for the midterms, and this required a brave face. They had to pretend everything was going according to plan, even if became painfully obvious they didn't have a clue what that plan was. Ergo, Rummy was doin' a heckuva job.
If these elections turn out anything like what we expect [which they did!], that charade will have failed, and I don't see the upside to keeping Rumsfeld around any longer. Furthermore, after these midterm results, the party is going to be progressively more anxious and start to seriously lean on Rove to get rid of these albatrosses before they sink '08 too...and both the Dem and Rep presidential candidates would start pounding that punching bag named Don.
I think they give him a charitable month or so to let the Army/Navy/Air Force/Marine Times editorial to fade from people's memories a bit, and then Rummy gets to "retire" and collect his medal of honor. Heckuva job.
I think for the same political reasons there's going to be tremendous pressure on this administration to start getting out of Iraq. Well, duh- that part is hardly crystal ball stuff, but exactly how it turns out is still unclear to me. Cheney still inhabits his fantasy world and has no political future to protect; and above all, George Jr is stubborn. I think he honestly believes he cannot have failed in Iraq as long as he keeps troops there. This could go either way- for the sake of our nation and Iraq, I hope we get out, but I'm not optimistic on that. I think it remains a disaster for the Repubs, but unfortunately, an even worse disaster for our troops and our nation.
Finally, there's Scooter. I'm thinking there's a pretty good chance he gets a Ford/Nixon style pardon, before the trial starts. They sure as hell couldn't do this before the election, and I don't believe that Cheney can afford to have the trial go forward. If they try to throw Scooter under the bus on this one, he'll fight back, and Cheney gets fingered; at the least, Dead-eye Dick gets called as a witness. A very public witness...to what went on under that slimy rock of a VP's office, and that's not going to be pretty.
So I'm guessing that either the problem is solved by a presidential pardon in the next few months...or the trial goes forward and Cheney ends up refusing to testify on some BS executive-privilege claim or worse, a national security argument. All of the wingnut echo-chamber will ring with righteous indignation (and won't that be delicious, less than ten years after dragging Bill Clinton into court for a groundless civil claim?) while Dick digs in his heels, all the way to the Supremes. Can they pack the court in time?
Finally, in an effort to change the subject, Bush and co will bloviate endlessly about that terrible Marxist Ortega they just elected down in Nicaragua and what a threat he is to world peace, and at least a few witless, unprincipled Dems (well, mostly Lieberman) will agree, leading other witless, unprincipled talk show hosts to annoint these idiots, once again, as "serious foreign policy thinkers". Ah, well- the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Well, that was easy. What're your guesses?
(PS- I wrote this this afternoon, and I was just waiting for a good time to post it- now that there are actually rumors about Rummy stepping down tomorrow, I guess I better get this in!)