Washington is abuzz with the speculation that the GOP will use this little caged birdie shoot-a-thon-gone-wrong as an excuse to get rid of Dick Cheney. It sounds entirely plausible, especially since George Allen was on Fox News Sunday morning calling for investigation into the declassification of the NIE. The GOP obviously knew the shooting had happened and after putting so much energy into spreading the meme that Cheney had the absolute right to have Scooter do what he did they wouldn't allow Allen off the reservation like that without some sort of larger purpose. Maybe it was only a trial balloon, but still.
The fact is that they do not know what will happen in the fall of 2006, and should the Democrats take either of the houses of Congress the stone wall they've been able to erect in front of all their crimes suddenly begins to crumble. With subpoena power the Democrats could start to dismantle the GOP crime family and there could be a whole lot more people than Scooter Libby in need of pardoning.
Who will play the Gerald Ford in all of this? Who could be counted on to be loyal and pardon them all? Allen himself would be a prime contender, as would McCain or McConnell. Though after the drubbing that BushCo. has delivered to McCain if it were me I sure wouldn't want to put him in the position of holding my life in his hands, paybacks being a bitch and all.
And then there is Condi, probably the one who could most reliably be counted upon to be the good soldier in the situation. We could be knee deep in people scrambling for power real soon.
But we do have to ask: who thought it was a good idea to put a gun in the hands of a fat, drunken, ill-tempered gimp with a bad heart in the first place?
(graphic courtesy Jesus' General)
Jane Hamsher blogs daily at firedoglake.blogspot.com