I cannot get this timeline out of my head.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

Perhaps, because it is so damn short:

Baker, the consigliere of the BFEE, is called in to bail out the asses of those foreign policy amateurs in the maladministration.

Literally days later, up pops the bogey man from his hobbit hole, meekly surrendering, with all the charisma of someone who sleeps in a cardboard box on a subway grate.

Question: Did Baker get in there, discover that Rove had Saddam on ice, and jerk the chain on the idea to keep him on ice until closer to the election?

What say you?

[gmoney]

1. Baker wouldn't do anything to taint GWB's election chances...

Check out Greg Palast's recent article: Baker Takes The Loaf

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=300&row=0

[bobbieinok]

5. 'bush administration's conflicts are us appointments'

a great line

[economic justice]

2. What say me?

I say you give Karl Rove wayyyy too much power! So many people would have to be involved in such a DANGEROUS conspiracy. This tin foil stuff ("Karl Rove had him on ice") makes DU look like a very weird and immature place IN MY opinion.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. No.

I give him just enough credence. And the power he wields.

[Eccho]

6. It is a bit paranoid, but hard not to consider.

Are you forgetting how the hostages in Iran were kept an extra month so that they could be released at Reagan's inaugeration? The source on that was Jimmy Carter (not exactly a radical figure). I agree it's very easy to get a bit paranoid, but what can you do when nothing seems beyond their hunger for power.

[economic justice]

7. Carter NEVER believed that <eom>

[Eccho]

9. Um, I am saying that Carter said that.

Anyone have LexisNexis to look it up? It was something he claimed many years afterward.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

8. Hell...

I heard the hostage flight announce their takeoff from teheran Airport, on the Strategic Air Command 11243/11246Mhz frequency, AS Reagan had his hand in the air, taking the oath.

And people wonder why I consider these possibilities...

[RainDog]

4. I say the army found Saddam

and that the army has been getting better info from Iraqis lately, because the Iraqis want to stop the guerilla attacks so that the U.S. will leave their country.

I say the army had been narrowing the area of a search for Saddam over the course of months now.

I say that it's more important to note that Baker was charged with fixing the neo-con mess in Iraq and Wolfowitz immediately tried to undercut Baker's mission with our traditional allies by noting that none of them would get any chance to bid on the big contracts.

With this in mind, no doubt if Baker had discovered that Saddam was on ice, Rove would not have listened to him, if what Baker said did not coincide with Rover's plan for the Bush re-election armada, and I say that Baker would have had no ammo against that because he's not going to undermine Bush's election chances.

[DemBones DemBones]

11. I say Baker outranks Rove. When Junior has to call in

il consigliere, he knows he has to follow his advice. Baker has bailed out Bush butts too many times to be ignored.

[PurityOfEssence]

10. Nah, I'm buying this one

Sorry.

[maggrwaggr]

12. No, it took the military all this time to translate this sentence:

"we will give you twenty five million bucks if you tell us where Hussein is hiding"

into Arabic.