Reply #13: Here's how I think it goes down:

[BlueIris]

1. Cheney resigns. It's relatively unexpected for 75-80% of the entire country (even us). I post that because I think the resignation is a done deal--he already has the house picked out and everything. I think he'll go during this "quiet" time, before Fitzgerald indicts him and other members of the Administration for a fat pile of extremely serious crimes. I have no idea what the explanation will be, but suspect it will be as bizarrely mundane as possible--maybe even an imaginary "family crisis." The point will be to "minimize" suspicion for why he's leaving by pretending there's nothing suspicious to be about (typical Administration ignore-and-evade tactic). Perhaps Bush will say something as insane as "Dick Cheney is no longer needed in this administration" or "we've grown apart."

2. Rice becomes V.P.

3. Cheney will be quietly indicted for a slue of shit. The mounting scandal surrounding the indictments plus the continued quagmires in Iraq, the economy and the post-Katrina Gulf Coast, as well as the stuff just coming out about the Cunningham-Wilkes scam, will result in an equally bizarre Bush resignation. I predict that he will give as few reasons as possible for his departure, and may not even make a "goodbye" speech.

4. Rice becomes President.

5. Rice, I am almost certain, will nominate McCain as V.P. then resign herself, possibly while under indictment.

6. I don't know if we'll even know whether or not Bush got an indictment or precisely what it was for, but McCain will pardon everyone.

7. McCain will run for President in '08.

Basically, the Republicans will have given the media enough room to claim that Dick Cheney's "neo-con cabal" destroyed the promise of the Bush presidency and dynasty (no, I don't know whether or not the MSM will come anywhere close to addressing what the neo-cons' motives were). This will give the Bush Family and their far right supporters enough room to save face and cling to their ridiculous delusion that their Golden Boy didn't do anything more than be mislead. They will do everything possible to suppress the truth about the nature of Fitzgerald's indictments and whatever else comes out about Cunningham-Wilkes. They'll probably be successful in suppressing Fitzgerald's findings, but I don't know about that second one. They may wish to have us believe that Bush was taken down for the Cunningham-Wilkes disaster rather than taken down for suborning treason, especially because most of even the informed Internet savvy populace still doesn't understand what the Administration leaked Plame's identity for. The Family will do anything to keep it that way. And the Party, though damaged beyond all repair, will be able to be able to merrily pretend they had a "major issue" with Bush, but they "dealt with it," will be able to have some semblance of a "normal" convention (for them) in 2008, then an election in which McCain will graciously lose to a polite, but competent team of hot liberals. Mostly because our ticket will clobber the opposition again, and the media will be forced to recognize their victory this time because they WON'T try to spin an outcome they CAN'T sell. I'm not going to mention any names.