It is possible that this commenter is blowing smoke; we’ve all seen it far too much the past few years.

But here are some things that sure strike me as reasons for… maybe not ‘hope’, but the possibility that some kind of ’scores will be settled’:
1. Note Biden’s seemingly weird statement that Israel can ‘bomb Iran’, which the MSM claims is a ‘green light’, yet the more reputable, reliable Juan Cole (and, yeah, even Steve Clemons) say emphatically is actually Biden saying to Israel, “You make a move in that direction and you are absolutely, completely, totally on your own. Technically, as a sovereign nation, you ‘can’ do it, you have the legalistic ‘right’. But think about whether it makes any sense, people.” I don’t recall any such remark or comment from a major US elected leader in my lifetime.

2. Note that as near as I’ve ever been able to tell, Bush did not so much as look at Cheney on Inauguration Day. And Cheney may have been injured, but it sure looked a lot like Scooter’s antics back when he had to show up in court — on crutches. So we had Cheney in a wheelchair and G.W. Bush didn’t appear to even so much as make eye contact with the man who’d been his Veep for 8 years?! C’mon, that’s bizarre. I got no clue what’s up with that, but something’s up with that.

3. Take a look at Clemon’s interpretation of Biden’s recent remarks, and then click on his backgrounders from two years ago, in which he was saying that Cheney and his minions were unquestionably trying to force GW Bush into a direct military confrontation with Iran — basically, as Clemons points out, it looked like what we might phrase as ‘intentional, premeditated, criminal conspiracy and insubordination’. The cooler heads: Gates, Condi, McConnell, appear to have been in a silent, back alley knife fight against the CheneyBots who were inflammed with the desire to bomb Iran. That was May 2007.

4. Note that Gates came in to clean out the viper’s nest at DoD, and at least all that cabal around Rummy and Wolfie: Cambone, Feith, etc were cleared out. (See EW’s superb Ghorbanifar Timeline for more names.)

5. In a mysterious and still-unexplained ‘incident’ in Sept 2007, so within four months of Steve Clemons’ reports about Cheney basically being insubordinate and trying to manipulate GW Bush into war with Iran, a US bomber with nukes was ‘accidentally’ found on an airfield on its way toward the Middle East. And we’ve never, ever heard about that… that was out of this galaxy weirdness, but not a public explanation ever given… except that Gates later actually fired the asses of some Air Force commanders. When does something like that happen and hit the news? (I have no memory of anything like it having occurred in the past.)

6. Look at what’s happened with the markets, and with the likelihood that billions have been offshored to accounts controlled by some nebulous mix of drug cartels, Mafiosa, and criminals on every continent. I don’t doubt for an instant that whatever happened at AIG was deeply, corruptly criminal and here’s hoping that enough people got burned that they want criminal penalties. And Eliot Spitzer has repeatedly said that AIG was ‘the heart of the mess’, and he ought to know… so with all the black budgets and black ops you’re not saying that someone put money in budgets where they didn’t belong?

7. The USAG firings showed up the tip of the iceberg in what appears to have been GOP protection rackets for defense contractors. How that ties in, I dunno. But it suggests that enough people got burned that someone, somewhere must want ‘payback’.

8. Is the US military really going to roll over like a puppy when a small group of neocons basically sabotage the Joint Chiefs? When Cambone alone can call off investigations of suspicious intel problems? I doubt the military is simply going to ‘forgive and forget’ and send roses to the clowns who got us into this mess.

Okay, enough items for now…
I’m just saying that it sure appears that enough people got screwed financially that someone’s going to be putting some dots together.

There are so many unexplained, bizarre things… but if I could put my finger on one thing that gives me a dull spark of hope, it’s that GW Bush seemed so pissed at Cheney. I’m no Laura Bush fan, but I didn’t see her even acknowledge any of the Cheney’s; maybe she did, but I’m guessing that she avoided even making eye contact. And Bush Sr was behind his son at the inauguration; it’s possible that he greeted Cheney, but the individual who appeared to be most solicitous for the frail, older Bush was — of all people on the planet (!) William Jefferson Clinton. Who literally made sure that Bush Sr got safely onto the plane heading out of D.C.

Meanwhile, Cheney was off in his wheelchair to a car and NO ONE appeared to show up to say ‘good bye’. I mean there were no Republican Senators, no Congressmen, not a soul (!). His daughter or someone pushed his wheelchair out to a car, and it was almost weird to see the vast emptyness around that scene. It was bizarre.

So maybe I’m full of sh*t. (Wouldn’t be the first time.)
But I’m just saying that there have been some very weird dynamics; certainly enough weirdness to suggest that some scores are going to be settled.

How do you work with a man for 8 years, and then refuse to make eye contact on your way out of town….?
I suspect there’s a great deal that we don’t know.
I’m not optimistic.
But I’m also a believer that if enough people get screwed over badly enough, long enough, they get motivated to clean up the mess.
Here’s hoping. (And I mean in the legal sense of it all — not vendettas, and not violence, which are futile. I mean the kind of in-depth, clean-it-up-clear-it-out investigations that actually produce renewal and long term change.)

Here’s hoping.

Apologies, my comment is waaaayyyyyyyyyy too long 8-(((