After reading this
interview with Sy Hersh on Late Edition, I've come around to the view that something radical might happen in the matter of one George W. Bush.
And I'm not talking about impeachment. I think the best way out of the fix America is in would be a bipartisan settlement of the situation. There must be some way to choose a broadly acceptible caretaker President to serve out the rest of the Son King's term.
And I know the man for the job.
Sy Hersh talked about a article he has coming out this week in the New Yorker. And as usual, things are much worse in Iraq than we could have imagined. Sy has the following bombshells:
- The current exit strategy is to pull out US ground forces and support the feeble Iraqi army with American air power. Eventually, Iraqis will be calling in air strikes. Senior Air Force generals are very concerned about handing that kind of power to the very unreliable Iraqi commanders.
- Bush is in a bubble. Even senior generals have no way of getting messages through to Bush.
- Bush is in some kind of utopian haze, he thinks history will vindicate him in 20 years and is not very concerned about the difficulties of the present. He disparages any bad news he hears.
- Jack Murtha has deep connections with the current senior generals and his call for withdrawal is based on what he has been hearing from them. He may even be speaking on their behalf.
- The White House was enraged about Murtha.
- There is talk about Congress cutting off the budget for the war, but tensions have not yet reached that point.
Hersch questions Bush's ability to make the kinds of reassessments and changes that might be necessary if the Iraq policy continues to fail.
We might be moving toward conditions where there would be widespread support for removing Bush and replacing him with a caretaker to serve out the rest of his term.
I think the only way to get that done would be by a bipartian effort to reach a settlement. Here's how it might be engineered:
- Cheney resigns. He is replaced by the person who will be the next president. The replacement would have to be approved by both Houses of Congress, per the 25th Amendment.
- Bush either resigns or is removed by proper invocation of the 25th Amendment.
- The new President choses a new Vice President, who again must be approved by both Houses.
But who should the new President be? He would have to have bipartisan, virtually unanimous support. He would have to have enormous credibility from the beginning. He would have to have experience.
I think there's only one man for the job. George H.W. Bush. He's had the job before. He's an elder stateman now, so he has credibility. He can't run again, so he is the perfect cartaker.