Blood in the Water

Harriet Miers. Scooter Libby. The Cheney/Rumsfeld cabal. The closed session held in the Senate. Katrina. The war in Iraq. The no-bid contracts abroad and domestic, with Halliburton and its subsidiaries. The sealing of records by BoyGeorge going back through the Clinton administration, and including his father's administration. Karl Rove, sometimes referred to as "Official A". Tom "Smiley" DeLay. Bill Frist and his family-owned HCA stock, suddenly sold before the stock took a nosedive. The Ohio vote in 2004. Hell, the 2000 election. Yes, there's plenty of blood in the water, and that means tongues will begin to loosen in D. C. A town without pity even Gene Pitney wouldn't want to live in.

Beyond the glee of everyone who's been screaming against the wind for five years, is a deep sadness for this country, and a call for authentic accountability from an arrogant, sometimes ignorant, and certainly Imperial presidency. The unraveling has begun. Even Tom DeLay, who must believe he's playing it smart by politicizing the judge who is now removed, has done his own defense a disservice. Travis County operates on a rotating judgeship. DeLay is not guaranteed a friendly judge. And Ronnie Earle, our D.A. for 27 years, is now free to make the same challenge should the newly-appointed judge be a Republican who's given money to any Republican candidate in the past. On top of that, the indictments, both for conspiracy and money laundering, do NOT include all of the facts Earle has at hand. The indictments included only what was necessary to obtain them. If I'm not mistaken, DeLay will not have a right to discovery until a judge has been chosen, and a trial date set. This leaves plenty of time, in a dangerous climate for DeLay and the Republicans, for lifelong civil servants and disgruntled former staffers to make the tough decision to tell the truth about "The Hummer." His tactics may well backfire, and I hope to GAWD they will!

Say what you will. Even though this Drugstore Cowboy has made the biggest mess, both at home and abroad, of any president I can recall, and in a mere five years, even with a minority Party just now starting to grow a pair, our constitution doesn't like to have the fundamental separation of powers distorted for very long. And distorted, diminished, and spat upon they have been. The congressional powers of oversight are not to be treated like a "quaint" clause from the Geneva Conventions. They exist to root out and throw out people like Libby, Rove, DeLay, Frist, Cheney, and yes...The Boy. This is what D.C. lives for. They've seen them all come and go. And the old-timers know how to create, feed, and finish off a good bloodbath.

Here we go!