Richard Milhouse Nixon was a very bad man, and a very bad president. He would have been impeached and removed from office, according to the conventional wisdom, but he first resigned, and was therefore pardoned by Gerald Ford.
Some members of his administration thought he should have toughed it out.
Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are the remnants of the Nixon the First administration. Nixon had tried to arrogate all power to himself and failed. Cheney and Rumsfeld believed he could have blackmailed everyone he’d been listening to with his plumbers, and force them all in line to support his executive power grab.
When George Bush was made president, it was with Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld that he made his deal. They are the permanent members of the administration. They set about making Dick Nixon II, the sequel.
George Bush should have been impeached and removed from office some time ago, for the illegal wiretaps alone if nothing else: the plumbers have been restarted. And the fact that leaks are coming out fast and furious in the Republican Party is likely a purge. Wiretaps give you lots of abilities to maneuver politically, and accomplish all manner of things that would likely be thought inconceivable, like Congress granting all of its power, and the authority to torture innocent people, to the president who could roast them over a spit and make their deepest darkest secrets known to the world.
A few have to be sacrificed, just to show you know how to do it and will do it when you want. So here goes Mark Foley, and then all those uppity Republican “Leaders” that might have the power to betray the administration successfully before the administration could discredit them. Out with John Boehner and J. Dennis Hastert.
Speculation? Sure. But I’d bet on it, if I were a betting man.
Update: Looking at that picture, yonder Cassius has a lean and hungry look, don’t you think?
cannablog 
October 3, 2006 at 10:58 pm
[…] But I bet they are still going to adhere to their leader, George Bush. And the corruption of congress will have facilitated a complete purge by the time it is through. I’ve done my part to help by suggesting that no secrets be kept for those who authorize torture, let all the details out. The danger is not over, it’s just begun. They are perfectly happy to dissolve the Republican congressional party and become a purely Presidential party. This is incipient fascism, and there was no way to avoid that possibility once the congress dishonored itself on the torture vote. […]
October 5, 2006 at 7:55 pm
[…] Who is “he”? Good question. Could be Cheney. Could be Rove. We’ll find out by the time our public investigation is through. Or it could be that my accusation is completely off base and they will all be acquitted. That is for the public jury to decide, when the information has been gathered and the relative probity of the evidence weighed. […]