The Point Is….

Everyone is getting revved up about impeaching Bush, but Bush is only the messenger. And a bumbling, stupid messenger he is. But if everyone in the Presidential succession died and we were left with the final guy…Number 8 Michael Chertoff as Prez, we still would have to deal with the GOP policies that have landed us in the horrifying stew we are in. That’s the point. James Boyce had an interesting post in HuffPost yesterday. He suggests that John McCain (R-AZ) swallowed his pride (and by me, his integrity) during the 2004 election because he’d been promised Cheney would retire before the end of this term. And when Cheney retired McCain would be named Vice President. Which of course would put McCain in a perfect position to ascend to the GOP throne in 2008. I’ll buy it. But would it change anything? It surely shows that McCain’s ethics are no higher than the other Repubs who have set Bush administration policies. But even if we have a more attractive VP than Cheney and even if Bush were committed to a mental institution, we still would have the White House Iraq Group (Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, James R. Wilkinson, Nicholas E. Calio, Condoleezza Rice, Stephen Hadley, Andrew Card and Karl Rove), The Carlyle Group and Rupert Murdoch giving the GOP its marching orders. Senate Majority Leader William Frist is the most blatant rightwing bagman the GOP has ever put in office and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is his opposite number in the House. Neither Frist nor Hastert will ever take a stand against GOP crimes for the long haul. Both men have been effectively castrated by their own party. Super-Repub Ed Rollins said last night on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight that the entire Bush administration is inept. “Every week it's something that just reinforces the message that these guys don't know what they're doing. They're incompetent,” he said. Later, referring to Bush’s trip to India, Rollins said, “Normally a foreign trip gives you something…but if we're walking back with mangoes, and they're getting nuclear rods, that's not a very good swap.” Responding to a question about Karl Rove, Rollins said, “I think Karl has been distracted the last year with the CIA investigation and I think, to a certain extent, he was much better when he was the political adviser. When they made him the deputy chief of staff, he worried about policy. There hasn't been any policy in a year and a half that's been successful. Andy Card is an old friend of mine, worked on my staff. He's been around a long, long time, and I think he's tired. And there's nobody else allowed to have any political....” When Dobbs said, “I've got to ask you this first, Ed. Is any part of this administration working right now, in your judgment? And I'm talking about in governance, not politics,” Rollins said, “Maybe Interior, but I'm not quite sure. I think the parks are still being run pretty well.” So let’s say Cheney retires or chokes on his bile and crokes. Let’s say Bush resigns, is sent to a rest home or falls off his mountain bike and bites the dust. Let’s say Dennis Hastert becomes Prez and John McCain is appointed Vice Prez. If these events come to pass, will GOP policies change? McCain is a man who could make it appear that the GOP is willing to alter its course while in fact supporting the current deadly GOP policies. I am absolutely convinced that if McCain becomes President in 2008 he will sell off whatever is left of the United States to the highest bidder and commit the US to 30 more years in Iraq.