Predictions for 2006
by Alec Baldwin
excerpt: Thirdly, a Democratic Senate, and its influence on what may also be a diminished Republican majority in the House, will lead to Cheney's impeachment. Many Democratic partisans and common Bush-haters dream of ending his second term prematurely. That will never happen, nor should it. Bush is the puppet of wealthy corporate interests and red-faced Christian conservatives who know the real power lies elsewhere. Besides, keeping Bush in office through the'08 election can only benefit Democrats. Every day Bush is in office pays dividends to his opponents. Bush's incompetence is the gift that keeps on giving. Cheney, however, is truly the dark side of the Force. Nearly every controversy that this administration has created has Cheney's fingerprints on it. Secret energy policy meetings that may have unduly influenced the California governor's race? Cheney. Valerie Plame. a woman and mother who served her country and was maliciously outted in the press by way of that Hack/Weasal Robert Novak? Cheney. Lies about WMD and Iraqi-Al Qaeda links? Cheney. Nearly everywhere you look, you see Cheney directly or, more often, his shadow, ruining peoples lives, stealing their freedoms and liberties and/or destroying whole countries to serve his warped goals of an American foreign policy that seemed dated 25 years ago.
...The seeds of Cheney's impeachment will be sown in 2006. He will be impeached by 2008. And with him and this administration may go the destructive image of America not as global policeman, but as a corrupt policeman. A lawman not interested in the law but in pure power. Not interested in giving aid but in taking just about anything that's not nailed down. Cheney represents a view of American political power that is old. Dead. Finished. And that, once buried, will lead to America beginning to assert its role within a new, cooperative global alignment. Not afraid to use its power, but not obsessed with flaunting it with everyone at every turn. Not a kinder, gentler US. Only a smarter one.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alec-baldwin/predictions-for-2006_b_12853.htmlOne very small disagreement: the seeds of Cheney's impeachment will not be sown in 2006. The seeds of Cheney's removal have ALREADY been sown--by Cheney himself. Bigtime.