But they're going to be drawing out this immense stonewalling during an election year. Republicans are already despondent over their chances next year, and the prospect of this issue coming up over and over and over again (as it works its way through the courts) next year would absolutely terrify them.

In large part, this is due to the fact that every single story will draw the inevitable conclusion that Bush is trying to "out-Nixon" Nixon. Just what Republican candidates don't want to see, while trying to win elections!

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But what if a half century, or even a full century (it all depends on how you define "heir apparent," apparently...) isn't long enough to hearken back in American history to find a more chaotic election? What if we have to reach back to the dim and distant past of 1825 for an equivalent event?

Since I've raised the question of what would happen if the presidential race were actually decided in the House, I will follow that thought out onto its limb and make a prediction how it will all turn out.

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This letter was written by Norm Kent, who sits on the Board of Directors of NORML.
Media coverage of the letter has been sparse, to date. There have been a few stories in the local Minnesota press, and one on AirAmerica Minnesota's website, but I feel this needs wider attention.

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Actually, that title is misleading. To be perfectly accurate, it should read "House Votes To Not Deny Themselves A Raise," but then you get into the whole annoy-English-teachers-with-a-double-negative thing.

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. . . The mainstream media had lots of fun with the Pentagon funding a "gay bomb" and other fantastical projects last week (and the late night talk show hosts had even more fun with it). The fact that the Pentagon funds some wacky projects shouldn't actually come as news to anyone familiar with the story of the "hafnium bomb" -- an idea for a grenade-sized nuke that has about as much evidence of ever becoming reality as cold fusion.

I guess I really shouldn't mock the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), too much, since they're also the folks who brought us the very internet you are reading this on. See? Some of their stuff turns out OK.

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Bill Richardson:
Here's my strategy -- 3,500 Americans have died. Our troops have become targets. My specific strategy is this: If I were president today, I would withdraw all our forces before the end of this calendar year. But where I differentiate with the other candidates is I leave no residual forces. And my view is this: We cannot do the hard diplomatic work in Iraq until our forces are withdrawn. When 61 percent of the Iraqi people say it's OK for troops in Iraq, American troops, to be shot [it] is wrong. When 70 percent of the Iraqi people say they want Americans out -- Sunni and Shia -- by the end of the calendar year, the time has come to withdraw our forces. I would redeploy our troops to Kuwait, where we're needed, where we're asked to be, to deal with any international terrorism contingency. But it is my view, Chris, that any kind of rebuilding of America's foreign policy -- dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian issue, with nuclear proliferation, with international terrorism -- can only happen after we withdraw from this obsessive, disastrous policy in Iraq.

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My personal opinion is that (1) Bush isn't going to fire Gonzales, because he's terrified of trying to get a replacement through the Senate confirmation process, and therefore he's happy to have a broken and ineffectual Justice Department for the remainder of his term; and (2) I don't think he's going to pardon Libby. I think a respite or even a commutation might indeed be in the cards, but not an actual pardon. As I've stated before, I do think it's going to be an agonizing political calculation for the White House, though. I could be wrong, especially about that second one, but that's the way I see it.

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Meet The Press' Tim Russert appeared on Conan O'Brien's show a few days ago, and mentioned that he had been at Woodstock. Tim Russert? At Woodstock? There's a mind-numbing thought. He said he made some money selling Stegmeyer beer for 80 cents a six-pack, so I guess he was there to exercise free market capitalism. Or something.

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President Bush really and truly wanted to exercise this option with Libby -- and he's still probably hoping mightily that the judge lets Scooter stay out of jail for another year and a half (while his appeal is being heard) -- so that Bush can pardon him after the 2008 election. But, unfortunately, the judge involved has gained the reputation of being a "long ball" judge (another baseball metaphor pops up!), consistently ruling "by the book," and thereby bucking the modern trend of letting white-collar criminals stay free on appeal. If all predictions are accurate and the judge orders Scooter to jail before the end of the summer, Bush is going to be forced to make this decision a lot more quickly than he would have liked.

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That's it? Kids love Scooter, so don't send him to jail? My kids will miss him at the White House events they attend? My little girls just cannot or will not understand that the "facts" were crimes committed by "Mr. Scooter?"

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