Cronyism has been around as long as government, but the Cheney-Bush Administration took this ancient practice well beyond the ranks of anticipated Washington practice.  By the time that everything was narrowed down and the neocon element along with special interest candidates had been chosen there was no room for anyone else.

It was Dick Cheney who, prior to the voter uprising against the Republicans last Tuesday, stated emphatically that his team will continue governing the same way regardless of what happened.  This was synonymous with his comment after the 2000 election decided by a one-vote Supreme Court majority after Bush lost to Al Gore in the popular vote category.  

Bush's talk about holding no grudges and smiling for the cameras during a breakfast with Nancy Pelosi amounted to no more than a head feint.  He hopes to be able to accomplish what Cheney stated he intended to do before the voting, but in order to realize that objective he needs to survive in office.

While Nancy Pelosi has stated that an impeachment action against Bush is "off the table" circumstances along with the forward movement of progressive grassroots movements could remove such a decision from her hands.  Go back three decades to the Watergate period and you will observe that initially impeachment efforts were equated with Don Quixote efforts to assault windmills.