The other view is that W himself is the evil genius; that this administration is headed by him and that he sets the agenda and determines the goals. He has surrounded himself by associates machiavellian enough to subsume all personal goals to his version of reality. Apostates are dealt with ruthlessly.

Two people told me this in private e-mail and by their experience, they are in a position to know better than I. I'll take their word for it. The opprobrium appropriately falls on W.

Not that it makes any difference, really. We have four more years of this administration, no matter who is the power--the throne or the cabal. Mostly we can hope that democratic institutions are not distorted so completely out of shape that they cannot be righted.

We can hope for honest elections next time, though that means somebody needs to investigate and straighten out the Diebold and ES&S voting machines (I understand they are developing voter-verifiable paper trail capabilities). And Democrats need to take a long hard look at themselves and their candidates and their platform and be prepared to fight smart as well as hard in the future. I still cannot get over the election silence on the prisoner mistreatment.

P.S. My correspondents said that Jeb is not cut from the same cloth as W.