: It would feel really good to see the Dems hoisted
: on their own pitard.

I'm not sure there are any "Dems". If there are, I'm not sure what either the Dems or the Reps actually do stand for. I think it's an artificial division, being used to lead us first to one side of the ship, then the other.

: There is lots of talk inside the beltway about Clinton getting
: a pardon. The buzz says G.W. will pardon him, but only
: AFTER a trial.

Is there? This is the first I've heard of it, really; perhaps it's the first for many other also. The more pervasive rumor was that Gore would've done that, had he "won".

: The trial will be divisive and will continue to divide the
: American people.

I can see how it would provide a dividing point - but in the end the people divide themselves, and circumstances can change. There's no certainty, today, that this would definitely occur, tomorrow.

: In the middle of the trial, but after the
: case against Bill has been MADE... G.W. will step in and in
: a magnanimous gesture, issue a pardon!

...because, as he's made sure we know, he's "a uniter, not a divider", right? Interesting, not unplausible, scenario.

: It is obvious that ALL the scandals of the previous Bush
: administration are coming back to haunt G.W.

: October Surprise is being investigated in Portugal.

: The Inslaw/Promis Scandal is being investigated in Canada.

: When Congress is forced to begin investigations into these
: scandals, if they decide to appoint some kind of special
: Investigator, G.W. can play the precedent card and issue a
: pardon.

: I can't be the only rumor mill reader who has thought this.
: Why hasn't anyone else written about this? I just don't
: want to hear the dems whining when G.W. pardons Daddy just
: like he pardoned Bubba! What's good for the goose is also
: good for the other goose!

Well - I think many of us here are simply keeping an open mind to see what's about to really happen. Along with all the dreadful rumors we've also heard some pretty nice ones, suggesting IRS may be about to go away, and Truth and Reconciliation Courts might be coming, that would put the recent "bad guys" out of business and maybe even out to pasture, for the next decade at least.

If that should prove true, rumors say, we'd also see a return to genuine Constitutional law.

I'd have to admit to being unable, myself, to foresee the implications of such changes' coming to pass. What would it mean, for example, to "precedent" in American justice, if we were to abruptly switch from one system of jurisprudence to another? I have no true idea.

We've had a suggestion that how things are about to unfold may DEPEND on whether or not "the people" are willing to _forgive_, in order to move smoothly forward, now.

Having thought about that question, and knowing that "As ye give, so also shall ye receive" is an incontrovertible Law in our world, I find I favor forgiveness, knowing that any "returning cycle" of consequences that ought to come to roost somewhere will still do so, at God's (or Life's or the Cosmos') discretion, not at mine.

If word of Truth and Reconciliation Courts has reached our little corner of the Web, and if there's any truth to it, then I feel sure Dubya and Poppy and Billy and Algore and Hillary et al. have already heard about it, too. I have no idea what might be deemed "necessary" for _public_ consumption, as such things proceed to unfold.

I don't presently have vision enough, or wisdom enough, to know what specific occurrences, news, and even entertainments, might be essential parts of keeping "the people" in balance and in the middle of the ship, instead of running wildly from one side of it to the other, if the "rules of the game" are changing even as we speak. Perhaps Dubya's extending of pardon to one or more famous ne'er-do-wells is an important element in all that.

Today, I just flat-out don't know. :)