Could it be that the Meirs nomination was an enormously successful ploy by Rove? Think about it. There really is no way to think that Meirs was a qualified candidate. So why do it?

First, provide smokescreen cover for the Plame indictments and, more importantly, a fixable cause of Bush's falling numbers. Those numbers are only going to rebound now.

Second, get the base revved up. They were ready to split from Bush over Meirs. Now that he has "seen the light", they are even more revved up to support Alito. The avalanche of support now is far greater than if Alito had been trotted out first. 

There has been little discussion about the real reason Joe Wilson was sent to investigate the yellow cake story. He wasn't sent to investigate, per se. He was sent as cover for his wife, who was the real WMD expert in the family, so she could tap her connections and find out what was really going on. From the little I've read, Wilson's report is a masterpiece of providing plausible reasons why the suspicions were unfounded, but it was clearly a cover for his wife's conclusions based on her covert investigations.

Judy was embedded with in Iraq with the crews looking for WMD. She pitched a fit when other journalists joined the 75th, even temporarily. The first reaction has been that the witch was protecting her story from interlopers.

What if she was really protecting her aspen glade? Pump up the feable hits and play down the massive misses?

Late breaking news: Judy Miller has reached an agreement to replace Greta on Fox News. She will start after taking time off to recuperate from her current ordeal.

Full details will be available when Judy deems it appropriate. 

For the sin I have committed before you by promising to be a

compassionate conservative, but showing no compassion.

For the sin I have committed before you by waging an unjust war in Iraq

in the false name of fighting terrorism.

For the sin I have committed before you by waging a political campaign

built on fear, not hope.

For the sin I have committed before you by cynically exploiting the

horrors of 9/11 for political gain.

For the sin I have committed before you by ignoring the plight of the

poorest and weakest among our citizens.

For the sin I have committed before you by the unnecessary deaths of

1,000 young Americans, the injuries to thousands more, and the deaths

and injuries to untold numbers of Iraqis.

For the sin I have committed before you by lying about my record of

service in the National Guard.

For these sins, oh forgiving God, forgive me, pardon me, grant me

atonement.

For the sin I have committed before you by dividing rather than uniting

our people.

For the sin I have committed before you by ignoring the loss of over one

million jobs in the U.S.

For the sin I have committed before you by doing nothing to provide

health insurance to millions of Americans, and to stem rapidly rising

prescription medicine and other health care costs.

For the sin I have committed before you by systematically weakening

environmental and pollution regulations, thereby endangering public

health and destroying precious wilderness resources.

For the sin I have committed before you by promising to leave no child

behind, and then failing to adequately fund educational programs.

For the sin I have committed before you by allowing the assault weapons

ban to die, allowing these grotesque weapons to return to our streets.

For the sin I have committed before you by bearing false witness about

the reasons for going to war in Iraq.

For the sin I have committed before you by perpetuating the falsehood

that increasing homeland security requires a weakening of civil rights.

For the sin I have committed before you by imposing a veil of secrecy on

government decision making processes.

For these sins, oh forgiving God, forgive me, pardon me, grant me

atonement.

For the sin I have committed before you by allowing the ends to justify

any means.

For the sin I have committed before you by lowering taxes for only the

very wealthiest Americans, enriching the few at the expense of the many.

For the sin I have committed before you by running a cynical and

destructive presidential campaign, designed to destroy rather than just

defeat my opponent.

For the sin I have committed before you by fighting a war in Iraq to

divert attention from failures in the just war on terrorists, and from

failing to act against the looming nuclear threat from Iran and North

Korea.

For the sin I have committed before you by failing to make any

progress in achieving a just peace between Israel and the Arabs.

For the sin I have committed before you by turning a massive government

surplus into a massive deficit in less than four years, thereby

burdening future generations with untold debt.

For the sin I have committed before you by unnecessarily damaging

relations with American friends and allies throughout the world.

For these sins, oh forgiving God, forgive me, pardon me, grant me

atonement.

For the sin I have committed before you by promoting a personal ideology

rather than the interests of the people.

For the sin I have committed before you by arrogance and swagger,

speaking with a forked tongue, and for the haughty exercise of power.

For the sin I have committed before you by appointing arch-conservative

judges to the federal judiciary.

For the sin I have committed before you by irresponsibly damaging the

reputation of the United States throughout the world.

For the sin I have committed before you by enriching my friends in the

conduct of government and military affairs.

For the sin I have committed before you by encouraging xenophobia on the

part of the American people.

For the sin I have committed before you by attempting to impose my

extreme religious and moralistic values on the entire nation, and

weakening the separation between church and state.

For the sin I have committed before you by characterizing all who oppose

me as evil, and all who agree with me as good.

And for the sin I have committed before you by failing to acknowledge my

responsibility for all these sins, for attempting to blame others for

them, and for all the injury and damage they have caused to individuals,

the Nation, and the future.

For these sins, oh forgiving God, forgive me, pardon me, grant me

atonement.

AMEN

Is it being overly cynical to think that the "war on terror" is just a pretext by the Carlyle Group Administration? From USA Today:

The FBI is investigating only about half the criminal cases it did before the Sept. 11 attacks because of its focus on stopping terrorist attacks, according to a federal report. Investigations of financial fraud, bank robberies and some drug cases have suffered as a result,...

Beat up the drums over there so they don't have time to look into what we're doing over here? 

While all the other justifications have fallen away, there was this key idea that we could rebuild Iraqi security so that the locals could protect themselves and we could pull our troops out. Instead, the administration has turned a blind eye to the plunder and at the same time closed the door on any sort of graceful exit strategy, leaving Rove with a nightmare choice - pull out of Iraq for the 2006 midterms and deal with pictures civil order turned random (and that's worse than chaos) or explain why the troops are still there.

Or can it be that the government-by-Carlyle is SO cynical that they're willing to let Rove hang, twisting in the wind, just so they can continue to privatize the American natioinal wealth? It's got to be something, because this level of corruption and duplicity can't be explained away by incompetence, no matter how pervasive it be.

During the disaster, I was struck by an interview with an evacuee who wondered what would happen to the home she had worked 40 years to buy, now that it was under water. Here she was, doing the American dream thing, becoming a bona fide member of the Ownership Society.

When I thought about her question again this morning, I placed her plight right next to the rumors I'm reading that the insurance companies will treat all claims in the Gulf as flood-related and thereby exonerate themselves of any liability. If that's the case, I dare say she won't have the capital to finance a rebuilding. Then all she'll have left is the devalued price of her property and she'll be ripe for the carpetbaggers' pickings.