Re the details about the Libby trial, and what's being said over there about who is the scapegoat and who is the bacon to be saved, Digby notes:

And here I always thought the VP's office was part of the White House.

I suspect that when the history is written we will find more and more proof that Vice President Cheney has been running a shadow government from the very beginning and that much of the malfeasance of this era is a result of incompetent and competing power centers vying for supremacy. It begins to explain the unprecedented level of faulty reasoning and epic mistakes coming from the one administration.

It's kind of funny that Cheney is calling Rove incompetent in this matter. When it comes to lying and obstruction (the skills required for this cover Cheney's ass operation), Karl Rove is a consummate professional and Scooter Libby is a joke.

This has been what I have thought for years now. I've read all kinds of reports on the Tubes about how Bush and his inner circle are repeatedly left out of the actual decision making, and that his "brain" (Rove) does all the Hard Work for him. Similarly, I recall reports about Cheney personally meddling in all kinds of things that are traditional left to lackeys- he craves control and power that much. So I had some thoughts.

-Be it because he was a drunk cokehead for many years, or because he's just naturally that way, it's very clear Bush himself lacks the mental stamina for a game of bridge, let alone the complex statesmanship of his office. Everything he's done has been about his ego, and as I think on what he has actually accomplished all my himself, the list seems very short. His anti-intellectual stance has been clear since he first entered politics, and he's always been surrounded by writers, spin doctors, and people who do his 'thinking' for him. The man can't even write a competent speech.

Like most egoists, Bush has also spent his career surrounding himself with people who make him look good. Condi comes to mind, as does Rove. If it's true that Rove was saved and Libby tossed to the wolves, I suspect that's because Bush realizes that without Turdblossom, he would be lost. It takes a very special kind of mind to be that dedicated to the project of making Bush look good no matter how badly he acts.

-Following the money, so many things make more sense if we assume that Bush is "for show" and Cheney is "for profit." That is, Bush is the image, the Texas souffle meant to motivate the rubes. And he's done it well, from massaging the egos of the Beltway Gang of 500 by making them look smart where Clinton reminded them of how dumb they are, to speaking the language of the fundies, themselves the greatest threat to a stable reality this nation has seen in its history. Bush supporters love him because he "proves" that you can be a racist, drunken, ignorant failure and still come out on top. That is the essence of their delusion, and the reason they're so willing to still forgive his many failures in office, even when those failures cost them. Bush is a dream, and we should never forget the power of a dream, even in the face of harsh reality.

Cheney, on the other hand, is the epitome of the saying, "some people in politics gravitate to the camera, the rest gravitate to the money." If Bush is for the cameras, Cheney is all about being hidden, working the backrooms, and keeping secret motivations and plans, well, secret. Bush doesn't have to care about power or wealth, and New Money as he is, he's probably satisfied with being Pretzledent.

Cheney, on the other hand, is part of that increasingly powerful and shadowy club of oligarchs, running not only this country but whole swaths of the world. Cheney answers to Real Power- oil execs, weapons manufacturers, the megawealthy investor class. Practically everything they want to do or have done is anti-democratic, for the purpose of concentrating wealth in the hands of even fewer, and generally keeping the globe in a state of Western pseudo-imperial thralldom.

So Cheney has to have some brains, and I think he does. He also has to occasionally demonstrate that he can "get things done" along the agenda of those he serves and would be part of. And he has! From oil corporation subsidies to the rape and pillage of the treasury to already wealthy coporate cronies, to suppressing the inevitable political progressivism that is the result of a browning, more diverse nation, Cheney has done his job. If we can list the things he's fucked up, for the most part, they are not things that the Master Class feels or worries about. Endless war means endless contracts for military hardware, as well as an endless thirst of oil to power it, and also fewer brown and poor people to make trouble abroad and at home.

The Libby trial is interesting because it's the moment in which an old addage is proven true: oil and vinegar can be shaken and poured on a salad to good effect, but when you put the bottle back in the fridge, eventually they separate again. Similarly, stupid and incompetent can be mixed with diabolical and ruthlessly effective for only so long. When the seasonings of megalomania and delusion are mixed in, it is inevitable that eventually mixture will sour. Perhaps a better analogy is to say you can yoke an ox and an ass for about one row, and after that, you'll only have a ruined field and a lot of shit to step in.

This is a topic that deserves serious analytical attention I can't give it now, but let me just conclude by saying I'm having a change of heart about following the maddeningly complex details of the Libby trial. I have long wondered when the Boy King would have a finalizing clash with those who (perhaps not) secretly hold him in contempt. We all said that eventually it would be more than clear that the War for his Ego was a failure, because there is no such thing as victory brought about by incompetence and stupidity. Similarly, now that so much is publically blowing up in Cheney's face, it will be interesting to watch the powergrabbing and backstabbing as Fitz gets closer and closer to the real power behind the treason. I never did believe an amateur ideologue like Cheney could meddle in the intelligence community as he has and get away with it.

It's always fun to watch political hyenas tear each other apart, and I suspect we're just getting started. Pass the popcorn. And stock your bomb shelter. I wouldn't put it past the Chimperor or Crashcart to decide that the only way the bacon can be saved is to flash fry it over a nice, nuked Iranian coals.