The Rove v. Cheney dynamic may be playing out behind the scenes...

[Blackhatjack]

Rover was mortally wounded by the Valerie Plame affair, and he convinced Bush that Libby and the OVP had to be made to take the blame in order to provide a firewall for Bush and himself.

Cheney insisted that Bush not allow Libby to take the hit alone, and the commutation of Libby's sentence was a way to maintain the status quo until Bush leaves office, and keep Libby's 5th Amendment Privilege intact.

However, the problems that have forced Rover out are likely related to Abramoff and the RNC email account. And Rove's fingerprints are all over the US Attorney firings. That is a matter where the wealth of documented evidence will likely sink Rove as well.

Now that Rove will be leaving, the Bush/Cheney/Gonzo balance of power will shift and Cheney is likely to prevail in getting his way on Iran and a host of other issues.

[EFerrari]

1. I think you're right. It's pretty horrible to realize the only check

on Cheney was Karl Rove. :scared:

[NashVegas]

2. This Morning, Reading the Latest About Iran, I Started Thinking It Was All About Cheney

The Bush administration is preparing to declare that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps is a foreign terrorist organization, senior administration officials said Tuesday.

....

According to European diplomats, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has warned of the move in recent conversations with European counterparts, saying that a delay in efforts to win approval from the United Nations Security Council for further economic sanctions on Iran was leaving the administration with little choice but unilateral action.

A move toward putting the Revolutionary Guard on the foreign terrorist list would serve at least two purposes for Ms. Rice:to pacify, for a while, administration hawks who are pushing for possible military action, and to further press America’s allies to ratchet up sanctions against Iran in the Security Council.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/world/middleeast/15diplo.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

And we all know who those hawks are. I think Rove is smart enough to know that war with Iran is bad politics for Shrub.

[mwb970]

4. Everything is all about Cheney.

You don’t have to dust for long before finding Dick Cheney’s grimy fingerprints all over the Bush crime scene. It’s becoming clearer by the day that behind every one of Bush’s illegal actions lurks the shadow of the Vice President. Never in our history have we had a Vice President who grabbed so much power. And never have we had a President so lazy that he was willing to divest so much power to such a man.

Cheney has said that it is his mission to aggrandize the Executive Branch. And then he notoriously argued that he was not part of the Executive Branch, placing himself on a new twig all by his lonesome.

This is a man who has no respect for our system of checks and balances. It is high time he was impeached.

Bush, too, should be impeached, for they are partners in crime. But there is a certain logic in impeaching Cheney first. After all, who would want to impeach Bush and be left with Cheney? And secondly, the path of criminality, time after time, leads back to Cheney.

(from "Cheney's Fingerprints" by Matthew Rothschild)
More at....
http://www.progressive.org/mag_nielsen0807

[NashVegas]

5. Interesting

For 6 years, Rove has been happy to enable Cheney. Amazing that he may finally be balking at the idea of going into Iran.

[KharmaTrain]

7. I Don't Think Rove & Crashcart Were That Allied...

I'd prefer to look at it as agree to disagree. Rove was the politics, Cheney was the dogma...it was inevitable that the two would clash and probably did regularly. A lot of it was papered over in their common zeal and hatred of Democrats and democracy.

The scenario for this strife can be traced back to when Crashcart named himself VP and bumped Rove down a knotch or two in the power structure. He was supposed to be the "adult" to keep Rove's juvenile pranks under control...it didn't work out that way.

If you read between the lines, you rarely saw Rove and cheney together...Rove worked strictly for his client, boooosh...just like Gonzo...and, unlike Gonzo who submitted to cheney's iron hand, Rove avoided it. That was until he tried throwing Scooter under the bus. I recall reports when the indictment of Scooter came down how cheney was pissed at Rove for not taking the blame and thus the OP makes a lot of sense.

Iran may be Rove's way, from the outside, of trying to do what many others in the Repugnican coven are tyring to do...distance their own complicity and try to wipe the blood off their hands on cheney.

Ya gotta figure the chill in that White House must be like working in a meat locker these days.

[NashVegas]

3. kick

...

[Virginia Dare]

6. I think you are 100% correct on this..

Bush has officially lost any power (which probably was less than 50% to begin with) he ever had in the White House. We are officially living under a Cheney regime now.