With everybody atwitter today about indictments, I thought that it would be a good idea to engage in some irresponsible speculation. You know, as a public service. So here goes:
There will be indictments.
Both sides will be disappointed. The Democrats because there won't be "enough" of the "right type" and the Republicans because they will wail until they suffocate that not a soul in the Bush White House could ever do such a thing.
The indictments will either go all the way up the chain or target somebody "outside the White House." Everybody who has ever set foot inside the West Wing has been indicted by somebody on a message board or comment thread somewhere. I am very pleased that I passed up that White House tour last time I was in DC.
Trouble is, nobody really knows and it's driving them crazy.
Depending on who the spectators are, this is either another Watergate or a witch hunt and all the true believers in each camp won't be able to come to terms with the truth, whatever it is. What we need here is a little Jack Nicholson.
When we have our beliefs challenged by evidence, there is a defense mechanism that protects us from blowing apart, although that defense mechanism has its own attendant dangers. In a way of protecting ourselves, we harden our opinions in the face of facts, making rationalizations for why the facts can't be true. But this can only happen if we form our opinions or beliefs on things that cannot, or at least have yet to be proved.
Jack Grant is working up a series of posts that I think mesh well with my thesis here (although in fine liberal-minded fashion he will likely disagree to one extent or another) that we endanger ourselves when we refuse to acknowledge that we don't know something.
The Left is absolutely certain that Bush is going down. The Right is pulling its hair out trying to divine an excuse. There are a few--very few--who are content to wait and see what the special counsel has to say. If someone way up in the administration is indicted, how many Bush supporters will say, "He was a good guy, and I liked him, but he broke the law and has to go?" And if said person is exonerated, how many critics will say, "I loathe him, but it looks like he's clean?" My wild-eyed prediction? Not many.
And there will be those who will say, "I knew it all along." Or, "Say it ain't so, George." Or, "How can they do this while there's a war on?" Or, "How can they not do this in light of this illegal war?"
Way too many of us have so identified with one side or another that we cannot allow our beliefs or opinions to be challenged and possibly changed. That way lies madness.
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