The Old One asked, "Why the hell haven't the goddamn Democrats impeached his sorry ass out of there?"
Not to defend Nancy Pelosi, but...
I spent a good portion of my life in argumentation/debate, a lot of it tempered by arguments with my old man, whom we shall call The Old One for good reason. The Old One is still around, and he predicted our current economic problems with the Chinese back when Bush 41 was just taking office...and he's predicted quite a few things "more correct" than "incorrect" since.
Interestingly, he's not all that well-read; he doesn't know the power players other than whoever's name is in the headlines or on the TV. He hates Rush Limbaugh as a "fat-assed blowhard whose never worked a goddamn day in his life", and Bill O'Reilly as "that clown-faced disgrace to the drunken Irishman".
And that's when he's being charitable.
So when he comes to me to explain why something is happening the way it is, I have to go to my mental bunker, ready to argue either way, so as to present him with viewpoints for him to make up his own judgment.
And that is his gift to me...to make me look at both sides, in order to better understand whatever came at me.
The Old One asked, "Why the hell haven't the goddamn Democrats impeached his sorry ass out of there?"
The quick response, of course, is that Cheney would become President; if there was any hope at all, Cheney would have to be impeached first.
"So why don't they dump his fat white ass?"
Because if they do, Bush can appoint a new Vice President, subject to the approval of Congress, just as Nixon appointed Ford.
"So? What's the big deal?"
Because this is probably what Bush wants, I respond. Look at it this way; if Bush appoints someone palatable to the Democrats, the GOP is going to fight it. If he appoints, say, Karl Rove as VP, the Democrats will fight it.
Either way, the impeachment proceedings stop, and Bush continues on until the internecine warfare concludes.
And if they try to impeach with no one sitting as the VP, then it looks like a power play to put Pelosi in power, I spit out alliteratively.
"Oh...okay, that makes some sense...but doesn't that mean we can't ever elect a female to the presidency?"
I lean in and say to him it's not that...it's that no matter the reason or cause, no one would accept it happening in this manner. If the woman was elevated to the Oval Office, it had better by Divine Intervention or her own skills at getting elected.
As bad as it may sound, no one will ever support a female President that took down her predecessor no matter how fair or just the fight was about. The conspiracy theories and paranoia would be on-line and in public in seconds.
"Yeah...I can see that. No one minds the wife inheriting the millions, but if she poisoned the tea or hired the gunman, no one has sympathy for the Black Widow..."
So, I point out, does that answer your question?
"Well...sort of. Knowing how this idiot doesn't think, who will he be told to appoint as the interim Vice-President?"
That's an easy one, I say, but not a good one...the logical choice that Bush has is to appoint Senator Joseph Lieberman to replace Cheney.
The Old One stops in a look of terror and panic from the other side of the table, his coffee mug shaking in sympathy to his controlled USMC rage.
"WHAAAATTTT???"
Lieberman is the perfect setup, almost to a Manchurian candidate level, I state with clarity.
He is reviled by the Democrats, but has enough alliances to call in to get the votes; he is "safe" to Bush for agreeing with so much, he will likely be found accepable by the GOP for no other reason than to piss in the Democrat corn flakes, without sugar; but most important of all, it will make Bush look as if he is "reaching out" to the Democrats, and make them look as if they are trying to divide the country.
Lieberman, of course, will either "return to his Democratic roots" or remain as an "independent" because "the Democratic Party has abandoned its core membership" and he will not become a Democrat again until the party has embraced that "core" once again.
He'll probably use the internet and netroots movements to give cover to the latter, and that's the tack he will probably use before anything else.
It is, I gently explain to The Old One, the perfect political poison pill.
So perfect, in fact, I say, that it has to be the plan in motion to keep the Democrats from total victory in 2008. Glorify Lieberman as the new "uniter", and the nation will collectively abandon the Democratic Party as viable for at least two terms.
"So how do we get around it? How do we get Pelosi to do...something, anything, to get this moron and his puppet out?"
We have to wait, unfortunately, for history to repeat itself; and, unfortunately, as well, Bush's White House is also keenly aware of it. Gonzales is "out of the country", and isn't available, and with Rove leaving, it's going to be difficult for Congress to act when the principals are simply unavailable.
So, as I scratch my head, there has to be some external event or two that need to be triggered, and the first one will be the FISA Court demand that the Feds turn over the documentation on the TSA proposal.
Obvously, if complied with, Bush can stave off impeachment hearings from that angle, but wit Gonzales overseas and Rove gone, he'll rely on Cheney for the stupidest possible advice: "Fight them! It's just a goddamn penny-ante court! Hell, we just pay lip service to using them for warrants!"
And even with Bush appointees controlling the Supremes, even that level of incompetent jurisdictional assessment isn't going to go well for Bush, mostly because his administration would now be eating its own tail.
The second, of course, is the follow up of the Padilla ruling; while the DOJ can claim it isn't a precedent, the Canadian refusal to 'hide the bodies' of Gitmo detainees will force that issue up.
In much the same manner, eating its own tail, the Bush administration will now have to deal with the issue directly, because no one is willing to cover up their errors anymore.
Well, I cover, no one with the moral authority to do so without question, that is.
The third is one that doesn't seem like much on the radar now, but will be soon enough...the RealID and Federal access rules.
"That's a stupid idea, and it will never get anywhere! If I need to talk to someone in person, I'm damned well going to go see them in their office!"
Oh, don't worry, I assure him while wiping up the coffee before it drips from the table to the floor.
What will likely happen is some old timer senior citizen will take a picnic basket to the gate of Yellowstone National Park, and attempt to cross the gate in order to have a lunch.
Or an old woman will want to report something wrong with her Social Security check to her case worker at the local office.
Or someone will go to the IRS for an audit.
Or, in the classical sense, an injured veteran will go to the local VA for treatment.
And any one of these will be denied access to Federal assistance by being dened access to Federal facilities...which would also include United States Post Offices.
Don't resident aliens have to go to the Post Office to register each year, I ask?
"Yeah, in February, I think...no, you don't mean that this is all a Catch-22?"
Yes, I do. I explain that I think the first real crisis will be when a Federal Court subpoena is ignored because the person called for doesn't have the proper ID to enter the courthouse, I tell The Old One.
"And when do you think that this will happen?"
Probably about the same time that Rove, Rumsfeld and the rest have to go to hearings or trials, I answer with a straight face.
But more to the point, I continue, Pelosi has to realize that she cannot yet act until everything is in perfect balance, and that no matter how red in the face and foot-stamping the masses get, she has to nail the bullseye on the first try in an almost Zen-like calm...or the whole of the opportunity is lost.
Meanwhile, it is the rest of the Democrats who need to act; the committee hearings, the investigations and the research into all of the allegations against Bush and the rest...all of these need to continue, if not in the hopes of finding that "smoking gun" that was Nixon's bane, but also for the build-up of evidence against the whole of the structure.
Either Bush is removed in a political surgical strike along with Cheney, with some kind of evidence that will convict them immediately and without question, or Bush will be removed in a mountain of compiled evidence that will document each and every action taking in violation of US Law, if not international law as well. With a mountain of evidence, Cheney is little more than a footnote himself, and will probably resign and retire the moment Congressional staffers start wheeling carts stacked with that evidence from the Government Printing Office to the Capitol building.
For the longest time, The Old One sits, stonefaced and impassive. After a few minutes of ponderous cogitation, he raises up, snickering.
"Boy, they really have us tied up in knots, don't they?"
That they do, I tell The Old One. Pelosi is stuck, because anything she does can be used against not only her, but the entire Democratic Party, and against the netroots movements, and all for the benefit of the Republicans.
But, I offer, with a bit of mischievous hope, all is not lost, even with her failure to act.
"Oh? And what is that piece of 'lost hope', boy?"
By doing nothing, we force the Republicans to behave.
And how long do you think that will happen before a major White House player screws up and gives the Democrats the opening to remove Pelosi from the table as a problem, and focus on the Republican misdeeds instead?
With a wry grin now on his face, The Old One pats me on my head as he goes to dump his now-cold coffee.
"Nicely done, boy, nicely done...Now, let's just wait and see how smart you really are."
And with that, he washed his cup and went outside to tend his garden.