Uncle Richard

Steve Clemons of The Washington Note yesterday posted something truly unnerving, if it's true. He reports that Vice President Cheney and many of his devotees throughout the government are unhappy with President Bush's move toward the a realist, diplomatic philosophy of late, and are planning "an end run" around the president if they lose the policy argument.

This is relevant primarily for Iran. It's been reported before that Cheney wants direct confrontation with Iran, and an end run could consist of egging the Iranians into attacking us in retaliation for an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear infrastructure.

Such stories portray Cheney almost as a cartoonish movie villain, subverting the president from within his own administration. And look, this is hardly substantiated, and I don't accept it at face value. But I won't write it off either, which would have astounded me three years ago. This administration has earned our skepticism and Mr. Clemons has an excellent pedigree. He's no ideological firebrand.

I generally scoff when people throw around loaded words like treason, but if this were to turn out to be true, how would it not be?