Back in the days of the Roman Republic, when things got out of hand, matters were referred to a temporary dictator, Cincinnatus. He would be approached on his farm, and asked to come fix things, temporarily.
With the latest news about the CIA destroying the tapes which almost certainly would have demonstrated torture, surely we are at the point that most people believe we cannot afford even another year of this administration.
Consider that Nixon resigned in August 1974, two years before the next election. Why not have an interim President and Vice President now?
I think this would be a great opportunity for one of the lesser Democratic candidates. Just propose the idea of a deal whereby Cheney and Bush resign, with an agreement that an interim President and VP would serve only until January 2009. Someone like Bob Dole as President and George Mitchell as VP.
The sins of Nixon are trivial compared to those of Bush and Cheney.
Now we have more than erased audiotapes of White House conversations. What were destroyed were apparently videotapes of American agents torturing people. And I suspect that one of the reasons the tapes were destroyed was that the torture was in connection with efforts to get information about Saddam Hussein's involvement with Al Qaeda. And of course I have no doubt that Bush approved the destruction.
The "catalogue" of Bush's transgressions is longer than that of
Don Giovanni in Mozart's opera.
It would take months of congressional hearings and court fights to find this out, and by the time the truth was revealed, Bush would have run out the clock. Open-ended investigations should have started in January 2007.
Of course Bush and Cheney will not agree to it, but so what? The suggestion, perhaps to be made by someone like Biden, would become the object of some debate, and it would give the leading Democratic candidates a chance to say that it is a good idea--these people have done so much damage that they need to go--NOW.
The deal could be brokered by someone like 9-11 Commission chairman Tom Keane. Most people don't know or recall that Bush and Cheney opposed that commission, fought it at every turn, and failed to follow its recommendations. Something the Democrats failed to mention in the 2004 campaign--I could not believe it when Kerry left that out of his convention speech, just days after the Commission's report came out.
And the current administration's failure to implement the 9-11 Commission's recommendations is another reason they need to go NOW.
They want to read your e-mails and torture people, but they don't want to bother to inspect what's coming in to our country.