Does Cheney Still Rule?

Mike Whitney thinks it's a case of Cheney’s Revenge:

Well, as many of the political wags are finally admitting, the adults are stepping in and taking back their government. The establishment “old school” Republicans and country club plutocrats put-together a plan to sabotage the Cheney administration and put an end to the Iraq debacle. The scheme first became apparent when Bob Woodward, the establishment’s number one scribe, released his book “State of Denial”. That was followed by the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), Lancet’s Iraqi casualty report, the Mark Foley page fiasco, and a steady barrage of ethics and corruption scandals.

The Democrats had nothing to do with the ferocious media-blitzkrieg which pummeled the Bush team day-in and day-out. It was all the handiwork of big-money Republicans who lost their place at the policy-table when Cheney and Rummy decided they would run the whole shebang by themselves.

The only way they could be certain of undermining the Sec-Def and the Veep’s powers was by attacking their political base and destroying the “rubber stamp” congress. And, that is precisely what they did. It's a classic case of the parent killing its own offspring or, as Dostoyevsky said, “One reptile devouring the other.”

Whitney speculates that Cheney might be willing to incite a war with Iran to restore himself to power. I don't think so, Mike: Cheney is an old bastard on a pacemaker, and he must be feeling pretty old indeed these days as he is forced to endure polite cameos with the Dems in front of the White House cameras.