Herd the gnus? Buffaloed hawks otter carp as 'Cheetah with a Porpoise' flounders; Lion croc lynx hound albatross, elephants' No. 2

by RonK, Seattle

Cheney is the key to the game -- whether the game is Jenga, Jumanji, or 'Get Shorty', and no matter which side you're betting on. As W's Player Personnel Director, Cheney drafted himself for VP. As VP, his thumbprints are all over Iraq, Energy, and the Budget.

To stay viable, W's best bet is to hand Cheney all the dirty laundry, say "stand over there", and pull the trapdoor lever.

To take Bush out early, Democrats must swap Cheney out first.

To exercise damage control, 'grown-up' Republicans must set up shop in Cheney's old office.

The old bullfrog isn't cooked yet, but the water warmed up quite a bit this week.

Sunday (2003-09-14), Cheney appeared on Meet The Press and must have picked up the wrong folio -- his pre-war talking points.

Monday, major media happily made mincemeat of his errors, omissions and evasions. [Openly divergent yellowcake cover stories changed the journalistic climate, as noted here 2003-07-12.]

Rumsfeld on Tuesday and Bush himself on Wednesday deflated (without fully abandoning) Cheney's over-the-top WMD fantasies and Iraq-9/11 linkage.

On Thursday they took the smallpox card out of the Iraq deck, and by Friday Sen. Ted Kennedy openly declared Plan Iraq a fraud "cooked up in Texas".

Everybody but the Dick himself can see the big L tattooed on his forehead. There's handwriting all over the wall behind him. Cheney takes a fall ... but it's too soon to know by whose hand.

[Read add'l pre-season analysis of 2003-06-05: "Cheney's Implosion will be ... a deliberate adjustment in the Chain of Succession, either containing the damage and preserving the topmost block, or clearing ground for its unavoidable fall." and 2003-06-22: "many tempest-tossed chickens will come home to roost in Dick Cheney's undisclosed location".]

Posted September 20, 2003 04:20 PM | Comments (89)