Reply #45: I concur.

[sofa king]

America is now effectively a dictatorship so we're seeing strongman/dictator politics now--not, ahem, unlike the internal politics played out in the Nazi Party from ca. 1936-1944. The timing of the release and my slimeball-sense says that Karl Rove is behind this. He's the only other guy in Washington who has the clout to take on Cheney.

This particular political dynamic is similar to the political fallout within the Luftwaffe as a result of a series of strategic failures in 1940 and 1941. Hermann Goering presided over the Luftwaffe, and wasn't going to take the flak for it--roughly the same position in which George Bush is in now. Goering's two most important underlings at the time were Erhard Milch and Ernst Udet. Udet was the connected old-boy with dirt on his boss, while Milch was the conniving political operator. While Udet and Milch were ostensibly friends, Milch was secretly assembling evidence against Udet, both professional and personal, which eventually led Udet to commit suicide.

Cheney and Rove are in similar positions in Plamegate: both are in unassailable positions of power due to their high standing in the criminal ruling political party; both are responsible in part for the incidents which must be punished; both are in a position where one can save himself by destroying the other.

One of them just showed a flash of vulnerability, and the other is a guy who has exploited every vulnerability he ever spotted.