Friendly fire

The Office of Special Counsel -- part of the executive branch -- is going after Karl Rove, in part for his insistence on politicizing every aspect of governance. The OSC, which (ostensibly) uncovers Hatch Act violations, has promised to look into the matter I call computergate. They say they're going to take a very hard look at Rove's tendency to politicize every conceivable aspect of governance.

My take? For six years, Karl howled while the OSC snored. For six years, Godzilla has squashed buildings while the OSC has stood around saying "What lizard? Do you see a lizard?" For six years, Karl Rove has had a neon sign over his desk reading HATCH ACT VIOLATION IN PROGRESS, and the OSC has smiled and nodded while sipping coffee and humming Moon River.

OSC head Scott Bloch is a "loyal Bushie" -- a homophobic hack who considers whistleblowing a sin. If the automatons at OSC are now active, someone must have activated them. Someone told Bloch Do this, and Bloch replied: It shall be done.

It's a thought so lovely that one can hardly bring oneself to think it: Has someone in the White House finally decided that Karl must go? The obvious suspect here would be Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten or his Deputy.

(Fun fact: Bolten plays bass in a band called The Compassionates.)

Rove's antics constitute just one scandal among many. The FBI has finally decided to question Representative Tom Feeney for his Abramoff ties. Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman's family are testifying to the Pentagon's tendency to replace the truth with patriotic melodrama. (I've long felt, but cannot prove, that this problem also traces back to Rove.) Senator Diane Feinstein is asking whether Bush's counsel Harriet Myers sought to sack U.S. Attorney Debra Yang because Yang was looking into the corruption of Representative Jerry Lewis. And...

...and and and...

And there's just so much of this stuff that we're all starting to feel like a whirling dervish who has had about a dozen whirls too many.

So what's the big picture? I can't be sure, but I sense the presence of internal housekeeping, or perhaps internal sniping.

One can guess how some folks within the administration must calculate the matter. If the Republicans lose in 2008, the Democrats will have unbridled abilities to investigate, to reveal and to prosecute. After the horrors of the Bush years, a new Democratic administration may not adopt Bill Clinton's "let bygones be bygones" attitude toward the previous occupants of the White House. The Republican candidates are lackluster: McCain is fizzling, Guiliani cannot inspire the Jesus zombies, Mitt Romney is unelectable, and even Fred Thompson has issues that have not yet had a public airing.

If the Republicans are to have any chance of a win in '08, the Bushies must at least pretend to clean house. There must be a scapegoat, or perhaps a scape-cabal, a designated bad guy or group of bad guys who can be blamed for everything that went wrong. "The problem was not the Republican Party; the problem was Person X. And maybe Person Y. And now Person X and Person Y are gone. Everything will be better from now on. We promise."

The fall of Rove. Dare I dream it? Do I delude myself? Or can such a thing actually occur?