Dear Leader Makes an Offer Denny Can't Refuse

Buzzflash has a good take on the on-and-off again FBI investigation of Dennis Hastert.

The warning: all that's theirs is Dear Leader's too. The Rethuglican spear carriers should expect no more privacy than anyone else. Or else.

If this speculative fiction was true, it raises the interesting possibility that what brought the Hammer down might also have benefited elements in the Company or at least pleased the whims of the Godfather.

You can even go as far as the Cautious Pessimist does and suggest that Fitmas itself will be something of a contrived holiday, when and if it ever arrives, benefiting the winners of the current battle in the cold Civil War more than the American system itself.

...Fitzmas, if it ever comes, is a religious holiday, because those whose heads make fine dance floors for its sugar plum fairies live by the faith that Fitzgerald will serve up more than failed pornographer Scooter Libby. Fitzianity demands nothing from its adherents except patience and wants nothing more than their speculation. God forbid that they should do something.

And the sham promise of this slave religion is nothing more than a few yellow cards to offenders long after the game has already been called in their favour. What kind of basket is that to carry all the rotten eggs of this wrecking crew? If Rove ever is indicted, so what? The Bush-by-proxy Reagan White House saw the most indictments in US history, and yet it's remembered fondly as a late golden age. Of course, this Bush White House won't be remembered that way, but it no longer matter who remembers what anymore. After all, American politics isn't exactly a popularity contest.

Chomsky's critique of "conspiracy theory" - at least those which pertain to conspiracies that hold no interest for him, such as JFK's assassination - is that their focus is personalities rather than structures of society. That's so wrong it's almost backwards, particularly here. Either those with big hopes for Fitzgerald's efforts believe certain heads must roll to set America right again, or they're just looking for the therapeutic benefit of striking back. And personalities are all we can touch through institutional justice. The deep politics embedded in the structures of power are removed from discussion and correction, and will, if left alone - as they usually are - continually renew themselves. It can spare a few heads for a Fitzmas because it's not a real guillotine...

Meanwhile, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald suggested Cheney would be a logical government witness because he could authenticate notes he jotted on a July 6, 2003, New York Times opinion piece by a former U.S. ambassador critical of the Iraq war.

Fitzgerald said Cheney’s “state of mind” is “directly relevant” to whether I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s former top aide, lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about how he learned about CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity and what he subsequently told reporters...

In the Reptilican halls of power, tension rises, as the factions vie for control of the turf. While the crocs roll in Washington, each trying to rip off the biggest piece of the body politic, on other coasts DINOcrats and more progressive politicians square off to decide whether or not the Company completely owns their party too.

But all the while the politicians respond to the realities they perceive, the Man in Black gathers his power, unelected and unobserved, to change the realities they are allowed to perceive knowing that for the players perception is everything.