Bill Kristol, sharp as a marble! The Sequel

We discussed Bill Kristol's appearance on FOX this morning below. ReddHead over at firedoglake asks some questions about it.

-- Is this evidence that Dick Cheney is not going quietly into the night but, instead, is using Kristol as pushback by proxy against Rove's attempt to throw him under the bus as an Administration sacrifice to the possibility of better poll numbers via a new VP nomination? As close as Kristol has been with Cheney's neocon cabal, it's certainly possible. But Cheney's power is at a low ebb at the moment, and I have to wonder if Kristol -- who has been opportunist in the past -- would stick his neck out for Cheney against Rove, without some reasonable expectation that Cheney had an ace up his sleeve. (Or that, perhaps, Rove might be looking more closely at an indictment than we've publicly heard. Or something to that effect.)

-- Is this some Rovian machination to distance the President from Congress and the Republican party while his popularity is so far down, in an effort to salvage every vote they can for the mid-terms to try to maintain the Republican strangle-hold on Congress? And, if so, wonder what the President thinks of Turdblossom having a surrogate call him incompetent on Faux News as a political ploy? Ego versus tactics -- wonder which one wins out in Bush's mind?

-- Is this Kristol expressing fears of members of Congress and the Republican party, rather than having anything to do with the Administration? Are members of Congress and old guard Republicans -- including the money that backs the party's machine -- ready to throw Bushie under the bus? In other words, has he gone from lame duck status straight to political road kill?

-- Is Kristol just not getting the Administration love any longer, and he's decided to take it out on them by smacking them around while the President is out of town? I mean, really, everyone else is smacking him around these days, why shouldn't Kristol get in a swipe to build up his "honest broker" credentials (**cough**)...after all, there's another election coming up and Kristol needs to keep that pundit gig.

-- Is this another salvo of the Team McCain in 2008 campaign?

I think it's pretty simple. The neocons may be sick but they are not dumb. You don't have to be a mental giant to realize the Bush administration has fucked up everything they have touched except elections. Kristol and company see their perverted ideology being threatened by this administration's incompetence and like rats deserting a sinking ship they are trying to distance themselves from the sinking Bush ship of state in an attempt to salvage their ideology. Not complicated, no Rovian plots required.