Hogwash. If Cheney steps down, I think it's for one reason -- he's expecting a knock on the door any time from Patrick Fitzgerald.

Tom Edmonds, a leading Republican consultant, said the White House had failed to grasp that the party was in desperate straits. "I have never talked to so many disenchanted Republicans," he said. "The president even stonewalled the minor changes he made by talking about how he was really perfectly happy with his team. He didn't even give himself wiggle room."

Tom Edmonds is a former president of the American Association of Political Consultants and a veteran Capitol Hill strategist. As CEO of Edmonds Hackney and Associates, Inc., he has developed and executed media campaigns for Republican candidates at all levels of government, and implemented independent expenditure campaigns for major conservative political organizations. Most recently, Edmonds helped coordinate and produce the media for the National Rifle Association during the 2000 campaign cycle, an effort that was recognized as decisive in the defeat of Al Gore by a number of publications, including Fortune, Newsweek, and USA Today.

Has there ever been anyone as searingly incompetent as Condi Rice,

I agree, though in running against that record I think they need to develop their mass communications much farther and into much more robust machines than they were in the past two elections, to be able to repeatedly drive home the message, continually remind people of bushco's dismal record, and make that record the preeminant issue of both this years and the 2008 elections. Rove will still be a huge force to contend with, and have more time to concentrate on electioneering since his recent function change.

One of the few things I think bush has ever said that has more than a grain of truth in it is:

See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.
--George W. Bush, May 24, 2005

That is their, and Rove's, thinking, and that is what they do best. Democrats have to become at least as effective, and unremittingly put the republicans into a position of having to defend an indefensible record, never stop hammering at it, and never give them a chance to define the issues no matter how hard Rove tries.

Developing a coherent well thought out and intelligent platform, especially a foreign policy that will define new directions for America in the 21st century is even more important for the longer term, and will help immensely as it will provide the sorely needed positives to accentuate while shining the brightest light possible on bushco's record of drastically expanding the murderous and interventionist foreign policy that has been pursued by successive US administrations for nearly a century.

The details of that new foreign policy are beyond my ability to map out, and much more capable and experienced people than I will do that hard work, but I think that the mindset that is needed to develop it must be based upon beginning to move towards working and living with the rest of the world, rather than attempting to force the world at gunpoint and through bombsights into submitting to its will and its all-consuming and all-corrupting desire for the resources of the planet.

I been warped by the rain, driven by the snow I'm drunk and dirty, don't ya know, And I'm still willin' Out on the road late last night, Seen my pretty Alice in every head light Alice, Dallas Alice ... I've been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet Had my head stoved in, but I'm still on my feet And I'm still... willin' --Lowell George and Little Feat

I'm torn between thinking it's better for Democrats in 2006 and 2008 if Bush keeps Cheney and Rumsfeld--and hoping they go for the good of the country. Your thoughts?

Why is it so hard for otherwise ordinary people so see that there can be no true National Security without a Foreign Policy that is geared towards living and working with the rest of the world, rather than provoking them into retaliatory attacks, to acquire the resources necessary to keep the amusement park operating?

...regime change in Iran not only may appear doable, it may also look like the only way out of the spectacular mess they have created in Iraq.

The logic is understandable, if malevolent. Instead of creating a secular, pro-American client state in the heart of the Middle East, the invasion of Iraq has destroyed the front-line Arab regime opposing Tehran, installed a pro-Iranian government in Baghdad and vastly increased Iranian influence, not only in Iraq, but throughout the Shi'a world. It's also moved the Revolutionary Guard one step closer to the Kuwaiti and Saudi oil fields - the prize upon which the energy security of the West depends.

By the traditional standards of U.S. foreign policy, this is a fiasco of almost unbelievable proportions.
...
In other words, the administration, and the Pentagon, have gotten themselves into one hell of a jam - militarily, strategically and politically. As desperate and reckless as attempted regime change in Iran might seem to us, to the Cheneyites it may look like the only move left on the board. The Flight Forward?

More and more George W. Bush's actions and words sound like those of a dictator, acting out of a Machiavellian certainty that he does and what he's creating will be best for all.

Some folks are born made to wave the flag, Ooh, they're red, white and blue. And when the band plays hail to the chief, Ooh, they point the cannon at you...

I was asking for a direct quote from her that she doesnt, not some liberal dimwits conspiracy theory prognostications that she really does no matter what she says.

Now we have George W. Bush standing before the American people red-faced and defiant, telling us all that he's going to do what he thinks is best regardless of our will, or the criticisms of US military professionals.

Why is it so hard for otherwise ordinary people so see that there can be no true National Security without a Foreign Policy that is geared towards living and working with the rest of the world,

Mmmmm, hmmmm

Traslation - "Will of the people:" In this case, what those who lost the election want done

Maybe because it is so totally wrong that just about everyone can recognize it for what it is. Nonsense.

The problem with the Democrats on defense policy is that they so far haven't been able to clearly get the message across to a public paralyzed by fears....

They are both learning. The Democrats, and the public.

Aaron writes: Now we have George W. Bush standing before the American people red-faced and defiant, telling us all that he's going to do what he thinks is best regardless of our will, or the criticisms of US military professionals. In case you have forgotten, or perhaps you never knew, we have a constitutional republic in which people are elected for a defined period of time. We don't have government by poll, or any other inane device supposedly revealing the "will of the people." Traslation - "Will of the people:" In this case, what those who lost the election want done. Edger writes: Why is it so hard for otherwise ordinary people so see that there can be no true National Security without a Foreign Policy that is geared towards living and working with the rest of the world, Maybe because it is so totally wrong that just about everyone can recognize it for what it is. Nonsense.