It's gonna get ugly. Oh wait, it already is.

Via Jane Hamsher at firedoglake, we find more evidence for my growing theory that this president is going to be taken down not by the "opposition," (such as it is) but by his own party.

Bob Barr writes:

...we get a president bobbing and weaving like Muhammad Ali. He knows he can't really tell the truth and he knows he can't rely only on lies. The resulting dilemma leads him to veer from unintelligible muttering to attempts to distract, and then to chest-beating bravado and attacks on his accusers.

John Dean adds:

I think it's dangerous for some Republicans, and I think some Republicans have realized that....They know the politics of this. They know the American people do not like to lose their civil liberties. It's still a story that is just starting to catch on and be broadly embraced and understood. It's a complex story. But people do get wiretapping. That's one of those issues they understand.

Say what you will about the modern Republican party, but (at least when it comes to electoral politics) they can get things done. If enough GOP leaders get together and decide they have to take out George W. Bush for the good of the party...he'll be out with one punch while the Democrats are still trying to get their gloves on.

And then John McCain (or whoever) can run in 2008 by saying See? We Republicans correct our mistakes. And, at least in the last few elections, evil and efficent seems to trump good but clueless every time.