IF BUSH OFFERS THE SAME DEAL AS MUGABE, WE SHOULD TURN IT DOWN-- NO RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY FOR CRIMINALS

This week, Zimbabwe's brutal dictator lost the elections so badly that even he couldn't fudge the results. So now he's trying to make a deal; he'll abide by the will of the people if he gets... retroactive immunity THE Guardian reports that "Mugabe's aides have told Zimbabwe's opposition leaders that he is prepared to give up power in return for guarantees, including immunity from prosecution for past crimes." Bush and Cheney are unlikely to offer giving up power but they, like Mugabe, are demanding retroactive immunity, or "immunity from prosecution for past crimes" for themselves and their cronies. And his "aides have warned that if the Movement for Democratic Change does not agree then Mugabe is threatening to declare emergency rule and force another presidential election in 90 days, according to senior opposition sources."

Not everyone foresees a happy ending to this episode and The Other McCain expects "an anti-democratic bloodbath." This morning's NY Times reports that a crackdown on opposition parties has already begun.

Zimbabwe’s government staged separate police raids on Thursday against the main opposition party, foreign journalists and at least one democracy advocate, raising the specter of a broad crackdown aimed at keeping the country’s imperiled leaders in power.

With the government facing election results that threaten its 28-year reign, security officers raided the Miekles Hotel in central Harare on Thursday afternoon, searching rooms that the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, had rented for election operations, said Tendai Biti, the party’s general secretary.

About the same time, a second group of riot officers sealed off the York Lodge, a small hotel in suburban Harare that is frequented by foreign journalists. A lodge worker who refused to be identified for safety reasons said six people were detained, including Barry Bearak, a correspondent for the New York Times who was later located in a Harare jail. The identities of the others were not clear.

Leaders of the Movement for Democratic Change said the raids heralded a campaign of political repression to safeguard President Robert Mugabe, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. His party, known as ZANU-PF, has already lost control of the lower house of Parliament, according to official results from Saturday’s elections, a huge turnabout in a nation where Mr. Mugabe has long controlled virtually all levers of power.