Interesting analysis from John Dean: A Cheney-Libby conspiracy, or worse? Reading between the lines of the Libby indictment.

Will Libby flip? Unlikely. Neither Cheney nor Libby (I believe) will be so foolish as to crack a deal. And Libby probably (and no doubt correctly) assumes that Cheney — a former boss with whom he has a close relationship — will (at the right time and place) help Libby out, either with a pardon or financially, if necessary. Libby’s goal, meanwhile, will be to stall going to trial as long as possible, so as not to hurt Republicans’ showing in the 2006 elections.

So if Libby can take the heat for a time, he and his former boss (and friend) may get through this. But should Republicans lose control of the Senate (where they are blocking all oversight of this administration), I predict Cheney will resign “for health reasons.”

On that last point, I don’t think it takes a crystal ball to predict a Cheney resignation “for health reasons” after the 2006 elections. Putting the person that the Republican party would like to have replace Bush into the vice presidency after the midterms is the obvious thing to do for political reasons, regardless of whether Cheney has become a political liability because of Plamegate.

But given my own feeling that Libby will stick to his story, secure in the knowledge that a pardon is waiting for him during Bush’s last few days in office, it was interesting to me to see Dean saying essentially the same thing.

This entry was posted by jbc on Friday, November 4th, 2005 at 5:13 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.