If I were a member of the Bush administration, and I was trying to figure out how to do my job, based on who was making gains now that the election’s passed, I would expect that the only conclusion I could come to is that the more incompetent I was, the higher I would rise in the ranks. Condolezza Rice to succeed Powell? Purging the CIA of people who were “disloyal” to the President? It seems like anyone who had even a modicum of credibility (I’m not talking about Powell – he has none), or intelligence, or even competently executed their duties is getting fired or leaving, and they’re being replaced with people who have been demonstrably *incompetent* during the last four years.

It’s like Bizarro world or something. Name five people you’d expect to have been fired for incompetence? Hm. Ashcroft, Rice, Rumsfeld, Bush, Wolfowitz. Of those, the only one who’s not employed by the administration anymore is Ashcroft, and that, bizarrely, is because he thinks he’s accomplished the goal of defeating crime and terrorism! Holy shit!

It’s weird. I mean, not just sort of odd, or politics-as-usual-is-kind-of-fucked-up, but scary, fascist, really-fucking-up-the-future kind of weird.