The Cossacks Work for the Czar, Steve!

Steve Clemons is naive. Very naive:

The Washington Note: We are going to see the implosion of the Bush presidency I think -- and just like Watergate -- there needs to be space for the William Cohen types and Howard Baker types of this Congress to join in a collaborative spirit with Democrats to save this country. The problem... is... how reluctant the White House will be to cooperate -- even if the President wants to tack towards a new and constructive direction.... But Bush will not go quietly -- and more importantly -- the allies for a better direction in foreign policy who actually do exist in hidden corners of the Bush administration are dominated by Cheney's followers throughout the national security bureaucracy.

I think that the Baker-Hamilton report... will call for a new, expansive commitment to regional deal-making.... I think George Bush will find the report compelling -- and I think he will order his team to try and "operationalize" as much of the Baker-Hamilton report as possible. But it won't happen. It will be undermined in the weeds, in the nuts and bolts details, consensus will be derailed, themes reversed after Cheney convinces Bush that parts of the report are politically naive and dangerous to American and Israeli interests. I think it will be slowly torn apart by a thousand cuts....

Cheney doesn't need to tell his followers -- embedded in every significant part of the nation's national security bureaucracy -- what to do... they know what to do.... Cheney's acolytes will see a new equilibrium in the MIddle East as code for selling out Israel's security interests because they do see these issues in zero sum terms, even if the President of the United States does not (by then).

Cheney's people, if not neutralized, will derail any new opportunities or directions. They need to be exposed as part of the broad Cheney network and pushed to the side. That is the only way to let some other policy possibilities to take root in the next two years of the Bush administration.... [W]ithout neutralizing Cheney down to the roots of his power -- policy and political anarchy lie ahead for the country.

Steve believes that the Bush administration is like the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Selim the Sot: a weak, incompetent, and easily-led ruler dominated by evil viziers who are strong, incompetent, evil, and forceful. If only the bad viziers--Cheney and his friends--could be replaced by good viziers, all would be well.

Don't believe it. Stupid, ill-informed, and incompetent as he is, George W. Bush has views. He does not want to change his mind. And, whether or not there once was an opportunity to convince George W. Bush to follow not-insane, not-destructive, not-criminal, and not-stupid policies, that moment has passed.

In the real word, "neutralizing Cheney down to the roots of his power" requires impeaching and removing from office Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, Hadley, and company.

The cossacks work for the Czar, Steve.

Comments

[David]

"In the real word, 'neutralizing Cheney down to the roots of his power' requires impeaching and removing from office Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Rice, Hadley, and company."

And *Clemons* is naive? If this is what it takes, we're doomed--'cause it ain't gonna happen.

[Yep. We're doomed--uneless the sensible third of the Republican Party develops some courage and some love of country. Unlikely to happen. But more likely than the belief that removing *Cheney* will do any good.]

Nobody--NOBODY--wants to go here, and for damn good reason. Moreover, it's extremely unlikely that the Senate will fall into Democratic hands, which is a basic requirement for this scenario. Even if it does, there'll be enough Democrats balking at this idea to deny it any chance of a majority. That George Bush can be turned from his course is a pretty wan hope; it essentially would require that the administration be put into a sort of informal receivership. But some form of intervention that both takes the Cheneyites out and marginalizes the titular head looks like the only out. Impeachment--especially of both Bush *and* Cheney--will tear the country to pieces, and the politicians know this, if the left blogosphere doesn't.

[Dave Parker]

I imagine the purpose of impeachment (could it even be done by January 2009?) would be to draw out evidence rather than realistically to end any terms prematurely. Sure, it won't happen. But Republicans didn't balk at tearing the country to pieces over Monica Lewinsky's dress. And maybe that's what this debacle calls for.

[Steve Clemons]

Brad -- I may be naive, certainly true. But what I see in the Bush White House is a president who keeps his team fighting generally. Bush is neither the kind of neocon that Wolfowitz and Feith were -- nor the pugnacious nationalist that Cheney is. He does have his views but he is also uncertain -- and frequently shoots from the hip. My view, as stated in my post, is that he is over his head and floundering, but won't give in easily to the coming assaults from the House. Even if he did, I don't believe that Cheney's team will allow the President to fully change course even if the Prez wanted to. We may disagree on this -- but I'm aware of other times, via Larry Wilkerson, that the President gave a set of instructions to Cheney and Rumsfeld -- who did not carry them out. So perhaps naive -- and perhaps just another version of the bizarre reality in and around the White House.

best, Steve Clemons

[Jon Fernquest]

"Bush...he is over his head and floundering..."

He was over his head and floundering from day one.

If the occupation of Iraq was a company and the Iraqis were the shareholders, Bush Incorporated would have gone bankrupt years ago.

Garner, Bremer, the CPA, was there ever really a plan? Or did the whole enterprise just wobble down the road like a drunk at the steering wheel? **LEADERS SHOULD LEAD**