Consequences

Alright, unless Chris can pull a Bob Woodward and actually come up with hard evidence about the massive electronic voting conspiracy, we are stuck with Bush for the next four years. What to expect? No more wars. What we have is bad enough. Bush simply does not have the troops to do anything else. The election had put a lid on news from Iraq, but with a major assault due to hit any day and elections due in January; Iraq is the issue the Bushies need to deal with. No security in Iraq means no free and fair elections. Every month we stay brings more dead US soldiers. But if we pull out the Allawi government falls in a week. If we don't form a democratic government, then not one stated goal of the invasion of Iraq will be met. The real worry is that, with the entire US military tied down, what happens when the next crisis with either with Iran, North Korea or some country we haven't heard of yet. At that point my mother can resume worrying about the draft.

Domestically, stuff to worry about includes the Supreme Court and the budget. The real worry is not over replacing Rehnquist, who has thyroid cancer. Bush replaces a conservative with a conservative; there will be a fight but not train wreck as the court stays 5-4. If O’Connor or one of the liberals needs to be replaced and Bush puts up a conservative, watch out. That puts Roe and a bunch of other stuff in real jeopardy so we are talking Armageddon in the Senate.

Finally, I see little being done about the massive budget deficit. Cutting taxes is often cited as one of Bush's big domestic achievements, but getting Congress to cut taxes is as easy as giving away shots of Higuera at midnight. What is hard is to switch from a budget that looks more and more like Argentina. Republicans are supposed to be grumpy old men who pinch pennies. Bush sure isn’t.