I think Kevin Drum (via Joe Klein) is on to something.

This modern-day Flight of Icarus known as the Bush Administration seems genuinely confused about the nature of power. In Iraq, they harbor a strange, ahistorical delusion that people give up power voluntarily. Thus, this or that Shiite faction is supposed to share power with these or those Sunnis and everyone will all just get along with the Kurds, and there'll be a functional, stable democracy in the Middle East.

But nobody ever gives up power voluntarily. It always has to be taken and domestically, Bush understands this perfectly well. Everything Bush has done serves the goal of increasing his and his people's power. The Iraq occupation is the linchpin of the whole effort, but there are many examples:

Illegal wiretapping. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. Torture. Voter purges. Deployment of U.S. Attorneys as partisan hit men. Support the troops. War on Terror. All in the name of keeping Republicans in power.

Bush is exactly right about something. Democrats' planned "no confidence" vote against Alberto Gonzales is, in fact, pure political theater. They ought to stand up, TAKE power, and impeach the S.O.B.