I haven't had a very high opinion of Kevin Phillips for a long time, but he seems to have recently gone completely nuts:

I realize that this is still pure speculation, by legal yardsticks entirely premature. However, the succession aspect is extraordinary. Under the Constitution, the resignation of Bush and Cheney would hand the presidency to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, at present Dennis Hastert, a former high school wrestling coach, well liked but manifestly less than qualified for promotion. Wise Republicans, however, would be aware of a critical anomaly: the person elected as Speaker of the House does not, as a matter of law, have to be a Member of the House. If Bush and Cheney were obliged to resign this summer, the House GOP could elect as Speaker a plausible interim president and have the presidency devolve on him. Someone like Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, the respected Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, comes to mind.

Another tragic victim of BDS.

It's mildly annoying that people still like to mention Hastert's "former high school wrestling coach" job as if it is the only thing on his resume. Hastert himself has said that he was proud of that job, but he's done plenty of other things since then. Not everybody starts their career as a rock star or regional vice president of a baby hugging company. And wouldn't you actually like to have a political representative who had at least _worked_ for a living, rather than lived off of daddy's fortune?

He'd make a lousy President, however.

I don't even want to know why this clown thinks Bush and Cheney are going to resign this summer - and I don't intend to click on the link to find out.

In another time, society would have had the kindness to corral the insane; now at least some of society encourages them to display their insanity for all to laugh at.

Maybe this idiot could ask that congressman from Louisiana for some of the tinfoil left over from wrapping up that $100,000 bribe money for the freezer. He obviously needs some kind of help.

Assuming everything Keven Phillips (never heard of him, BTW) says comes true -- so what? What's so scary about Richard Lugar?

I didn't say that the prospect was scary. Just that the notion that it could actually happen is nuts.

If anyone did decide to click on the link, would you mind telling me if Mr. Phillips also mentioned something about an unbirthday party he recently attended? Anything about a white rabbit?

Maybe we could put in some feature requests for his next hallucination? I'd like to be immortal (fix my body physically at say 18 years of age) say by July. A ruby red, faster-than-light, flying saucer with flames painted on the side. That sort of thing.

I sacrificed for the team.

Mr. Phillips is "speculating" (hoping wildly) that the combination of low opinion polls and some sort of fallout from the Plame investigation will result in the departure of Bush and Cheney. Apparently, Phillips believes there is a good chance that Karl Rove will be indicted for some sort of role in that scandal and that Bush will somehow be "hard-pressed to survive" as a result.

And of course it is "likely" that if the scandal takes out Bush, it'll take out Cheney. Then we're to Hastert, "former high school wrestling coach" who also happens to be the Speaker of the House (to his credit, Phillips does note the Speakership first). Cheney could resign first and let a repected "Lugar-like figure" become VP and then President "before any November Democrat takeover of Congress".

He seems to think these events will be "tumultuous" especially when combined with the November elections. Bush's approval rating combined with "crumbling consumer confidence" will increase the likelihood of the Democrat takeover.

Then Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House and then the next President, if Bush and Cheney both resign or get kicked out of office in 2007. The Democrats can even replace Pelosi (as the Republicans could but won't replace Hastert) with a "national figure", say like Bill Clinton. So Clinton can get back into the Presidency without even getting elected (the latter which he can't do
because of the relevant constitutional amendment).

"Will it happen? Probably not." He could have saved some space by cutting out the story (95% of what he wrote) ahead of this insightful comment. But he does note that Bush is now as popular as Nixon and Carter were at the respective ends of their terms and finishes up with the keen observation that "The replacement of George W. Bush, if necessary, stands to be a little more complicated."

Thanks, Karl, for your heroic effort. You da' man.

"But he does note that Bush is now as popular as Nixon and Carter were at the respective ends of their terms and finishes up with the keen observation that "The replacement of George W. Bush, if necessary, stands to be a little more complicated.""

In response to his insane "keen observation": Ummm, no. He will be "replaced" following the next presidential election.

My secret source? The Constitution.

This clown definitely needs his meds doubled, at least.

I feel sleazy even wading into this cesspool of thought but:

Bush Resigns, Cheney could linger and become President.

Then Cheney could appoint someone of his choosing as PResident and resign.

Why in the hell would both resign simlutaneously? It would be a national security crisis and short of bot being caught in a conspiracy to cover up a murder, would never happen under any concievable circumstance.

If I got the job couldn't I run in 2008 and 2012?

Apparently the Dems have absolutely nothing to offer but these fairy tales. Really pathetic.

And here I thought 24 was already over for the season....silly me.

...the person elected as Speaker of the House does not, as a matter of law, have to be a Member of the House.

Believe it or not, I actually knew this. Some Phillips-like pundits were speculating about the simultaneous impeachment of Bill Clinton and Al Gore back in '98 or so, with the fearsome prospect of Newt Gingrich becoming president as a result -- so there were suggestions Gingrich should step aside temporarily, in favor of, say, Jack Kemp or some such, until after Bill and Al get the heave-ho.

Those were heady days. As in headcase.

All I can say is that if I'm speculating wildly on when the next president and her VP resign (say in 2014), then please look under the sofa. My meds probably rolled under there.

I was disappointed in Phillips' latest book about theocracy in America. I had heard it described as a book about a group of true believers dedicated to getting control of the State and using its power to force obedience to their irrational beliefs. Then I read it, and golly, was I surprised--it was about the Religious Right! I had assumed it was about liberals!

We'll see. It's worth remembering that there quite a bit of ridicule along the same lines in early 1973 to the idea that Nixon might conceivably get the boot. And, as John Dean (who should know) keeps saying, any administration as unusually secretive as this one has much to be secretive about.