The I-Word Is Aimed At The Wrong Guy

by Steve

From the weekend edition of US News and World Report's Washington Whispers:

The degree to which the new Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill despises Vice President Dick Cheney is a big plus for President Bush. Consider why incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scrapped an idea to impeach Bush: "Two words: Dick Cheney," he says, joking that it would vault the veep into the Oval Office.

Pelosi and Reid have rightly said that impeachment is off the table now, as it will be. What they haven't said is whether that will change after the Democrats convene a whole series of oversight hearings next year to document the administration's malfeasance on everything from the Cheney Energy Task Force deliberations, to Plame, to Guantanamo, to domestic spying, and of course Iraq and perhaps 9/11. But I suspect that Pelosi and Reid are also smart enough to misdirect the media away from what the real plan may be, as evidenced by this most recent comment by Reid.

They wouldn't target the guy at the top, but rather the lesser-popular and even more responsible architect underneath him. They'd go after Cheney.