All your November surprises belong to Rove

I'm still trying to make sense of the events of the last few days. I should be feeling happy but instead I'm left with a lingering suspicion that something is not quite right. I mean, pass the tin foil but I agree with nolocontendere. There's a certain shock and awe quality to all this good news at once. Why the November surprises -- after the surprising election?

It stinks of Rove. I have no doubt he could have skewed this election for the GOP. He fed the story line with his bold predictions and the ensuing Diebold glitches that followed shortly thereafter were certainly conveniently timed. Not a bad way to take some steam out of the voter verification movement. And the crucial races, so suddenly narrowing at the end, but going for the Democrat, lends further doubt about the ability of the Diebolds to be manipulated among the skeptics, who were up to that point being won over.

Another big reason for Karl to give this election to the Democrats? It takes the focus off White House incompetency and shines the spotlight on the Democrats' performance instead. You can be certain he'll be working his black arts under that smokescreen. In fact, it's already happening. Rumsfeld's sudden dismissal in the midst of the election chaos deflects scrutiny over the nominee and Gates is not a trade up from Rummy. He's just one more incompetent crony for running a foreign war. However, he just might come in handy if you wanted to declare martial law for instance.

Meanwhile, the Dems are likely to play into Karl's hands. Pelosi's challenge is ethics, not ideology and as Radley points out, she's got a serious problem if she really is going to "drain the swamp." It certainly doesn't look like the denizens of K Street are expecting any big changes.

Meanwhile, the party machine automatons at the DNC pulled the long knives out and are aiming to slice Dean out of the party, allegedly for failing to win every single blessed seat possible. Translate that to mean they're intimidated by the power of the netroots and want to neutralize the movement before it gets any bigger.

But there is good news out all this chaos. Bolton is history. And Mehlman is out, in more ways than one, although I hear CNN scrapped Bill Maher's comments about Ken's sexual orientation.

I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow's surprise is going to be. Maybe Cheney will resign.