WOULD IT SURPRISE YOU TO KNOW REPUBLICANS, LED BY CHENEY AND ROVE, ARE PURPOSELY POISONING THE TENOR OF AMERICAN POLITICS?

Who do you think is the most trusted person in this picture?

Bush, Cheney and the Republican Party continue to plummet in national surveys. Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, has a solid approval rating among Democrats and independents. Even the few honest and marginally decent Republicans in Congress have come to her defense when she was viciously attacked-- in a quite premeditated way-- by the Bush Regime, their media allies and the Republican Echo Chamber. Most people assumed it was Rove who orchestrated the vituperative campaign against her and her trip to the Middle East. Today Think Progress pointed the finger, very convincingly, at Dick Cheney as the man behind the curtain. Rove? Cheney? I'm not certain.

The case for Cheney smearing the Speaker is very strong-- and supported by Henry Waxman and Tom Lantos, both of whom-- rabid Israel supporters-- accompanied her on her trip. The case is based on the Bush Regime being desperate to weaken her in time for the negotiations about winding down Bush's occupation of Iraq.

Rep. Henry Waxman suggested that the White House’s coordinated attempts to smear Pelosi were part of an effort to undermine her on Iraq:

Waxman said the administration is focused on building a case against the Democrats in preparation for a showdown over the Iraq War funding bill. The more they can paint Democrats as weak and irresponsible, the more likely the Democrats will knuckle under and let the president continue the war unchecked. It’s been known to happen.

So Cheney trashes the reputation of men like Lantos and Waxman (who, by the way, has doggedly pursued waste and mismanagement in Iraq by Halliburton, the company that made Cheney rich), and it’s politics as usual.

This is not unchartered territory for Cheney. He has become famous for kneecapping people with whom he disagrees, even individuals within the administration.

I don't discount this theory at all-- and the two have been known to work together as a team-- but I am still convinced Rove's paw prints are all over this operation. And the stakes are even higher than just weakening Pelosi's position in regard to Iraq. It is clear from Rove's perspective as a dual operative for the RNC and the White House that smearing Pelosi-- with all manner of calumny and far right fantasy is part of their plan to try to grab power in 2008. All over the country, Rove is directing right wing financiers-- like the Swiftboat money man/scumbag, Sam Fox, Bush just gave a backdoor appointment to an ambassadorship-- to fund advertising campaigns meant to establish among low-information voters that Nancy Pelosi is an untrustworthy kook with "liberal San Francisco values" and then push the point that local congressmen who support popular initiatives like increasing the minimum wage or looking for an end to the occupation of Iraq, must be tainted. Look at the outrageous website the RNCC, with Rove's connivance, has put together to smear the least progressive of all the newly elected Democrats, Jason Altmire. This is pure Rove. And he's doing it all over the country.

So, sure Cheney wants to tear down the Speaker with a campaign of systematic lies and distortions-- but so does Rove. And the two work hand in glove.