The setting: Karl Rove's office, late in the evening. Present are Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. Cheney sits in a chair facing Rove, a grim look on his face. At his desk, Rove furiously punches numbers into a laptop computer. Cheney grows increasingly irritated at Rove's silence, shifting in his chair, clearing his throat and glaring impatiently at Rove.
Finally he speaks...below the fold.
Cheney: Karl, we're screwed. The kid's approval ratings are in the cellar and it's going to cost us the White House. What can we do?
Rove: Gimme a minute. (sound of tapping on keys) OK. Got it. Our worries are over.
Cheney: What are you talking about? We're losing our shirts, man! There's no way we'll get the electorate behind us before the election.
Rove: What election?
Cheney: Aw, c'mon. You know perfectly well what election. The next presidential election, that's what election. Our poll numbers are so bad we can't even get close enough to steal it like we did the last two times. (stares morosely at the knife-edge crease in his pants)
Rove: Oh. (pauses reflectively) Well, what if there were no election?
(Cheney's head snaps up and he gapes at Rove)
Cheney: What?!? There HAS to be an election. It's in the Constitution...at least I think it is. Every four years we hold presidential elections. We've done that since day one.
Rove (slowly, patiently, as if speaking to a child): Ah...but those other elections were in normal times. Oh, sure, there might have been a war or two going on...maybe a depression once, but we were never involved in a global war on terror. Dick, we're at war with the world. All the rules have gone out the window. We can't be exercising our democratic principles in the middle of a universal war. There's too much danger that the voters will go off half-cocked and elect someone who won't fight the rest of the world. We're just going to have to declare a national state of emergency and cancel the 2008 elections.
Cheney: I love it, but we can't do that. The Democrats will scream bloody murder.
Rove: Let 'em. What are they gonna do? They can't approve a simple set of benchmarks for ending one lousy part of the war, even with a roaring mandate from the voters. After all that big talk and even immunity for Monica they're wimping out on the Justice Department rigging. They haven't even held hearings on New Orleans. They'll do like they always do...raise hell in the media and then panic for fear doing something might cost them a vote or two. I thought for a while after that last election they might be a problem but most of 'em have bought our fearmongering hook, line and sinker. This will be a piece of cake.
Cheney: But not all of them will cave. There are still a few of them with principles.
Rove (closing the laptop with a snap): They'll never be able to pass legislation forcing an election if we phrase it as a matter of national security. Beyond that, what's the worst they can do?
Cheney: Well, what if one of them takes it to the Supreme Court?
Rove (smiling): Yes?