How can a person be re-elected to a position they were never elected to in the first place? How can a person be re-elected in an election in which, for the second Presidential election in a row, there was rampant fraud intensely focused on a single state in which the Republicans were in complete control and the "victory" was by the tiniest of margins?

Why does Salon continue to pretend this person is our twice-elected President?

Probably the most telling feature of this scandal is the comparison to Watergate. Perhaps everyone is right. The cover-up that is worse than the crime leads, in both cases, to much larger issues, among them the expose of an administration obsessed with only one thing: remaining in power. There is one parallel, however, that is the most worrisome: the aftermath. Watergate left the nation confused and divided, disenchanted with the office of the President that has gone too far. And though it may be argued that we were pretty well divided even before the Valerie Wilson issue broke, it's clear that the main aftermath of this scandal will also be confusion, division, disenchantment and dismay.

This is the first irrefutable proof of something that 50% of the nation suspected all along: that this administration played us for fools ever since the Towers fell. The phony "intelligence" that sold us on the Iraq war is just part of the brazen boo-politics used by our leaders to line their pockets and set up their cronies with cushy jobs in the government. It is one thing to suspect one's administration of fraud, it is a whole another thing to see proof of it.

For the people who voted against Bush in 2004, the Plame affair confirms their worst fears. For the people who voted for Bush in 2004, it is a nasty wake-up call. The President who rode to victory as the champion of "moral values" presides over a cabal of liars, cheats and thieves. The administration which was elected because people trusted them on national security spent innumerable man-hours dismantling our national security network. The people who are supposed to be competent at their job turned out to be nothing but a gaggle of petty criminals.

And that is probably the most damaging legacy of the Plame affair: our relization that for the last five years we've been ruled by a gang of thugs. It sucks to be us.

GEORGE BUSH WAS NOT "RE-ELECTED." STOP. REPEAT. GEORGE BUSH WAS NOT "RE-ELECTED." STOP. REPEAT. GEORGE BUSH WAS NOT "RE-ELECTED." STOP. REPEAT.

"A" cover-up worked... it's just not "THE" cover-up to which E.J. Dionne is referring. I know we've read all of the same post-election analyses and have come to different conclusions, and your condescending resident centrist / apologist Farhad Manjoo has contemptuously dismissed those of us who -- if not contested the results outright -- believe there were enough idiosyncracies and irregularities to at least question the overall outcome of the 2004 presidential election.

Enough of the electorate knew something was wrong, just as we did in 2000. I will contend that the cover-ups by a negligent press now complicit in stolen elections is part of larger vortex of deceit and denial... and that combined with an apathetic public is creating an overall cover-up of reality. THAT is the real problem here.

The following statement from the article is true in this case but not in every case:

"And if Dionne is right, it will keep working right through the first Tuesday in November three years from now."

Election Day is the Tuesday after the first Monday of November. It just happened that the first Monday and the first Tuesday were in the same week in 2008. In 2006, the first Tuesday is the first week (today) while the first Monday is in the second week, November 8, 2006.

The Bush administration only acted as any of us would have predicted in such a situation. Politicians do whatever it takes to stay in office including lying to the electorate. The real betrayal in this matter was committed by Matthew Cooper and Judy Miller. If they had written what they knew at the time they knew it, we would not be wondering if the election might have come out different.

I only wish this mess were a wakeup call to those who voted for Bush in 2004. I'm actually afraid to bring it up to my sister who did vote for him last year. I don't want to back her into a corner and tell her I told her so, true, but even worse... I don't want to have to hang up the phone when she says she'd still prefer Bush to Kerry because Kerry "flip-flopped too much".

The parallel universe I've been living in for the past 5 years simply will not realign with the reality I know in my head should exist. Americans should not be this (pick your adjective: naive, selfish, lazy, ignorant, stupid) as to keep believing in Bush, and yet 40% of them still do! There is no wake-up call that will rouse many of them, of that we can now be sure.

I just wish I had the answer to creating that reality I envision so clearly.

You could always impeach Bush, or better yet, recall him.

Prediction: The mainstream media and the right wing media machine will seek to minimize, and ultimately bury, any news or advocacy for continued investigation of the WH coverup of their actions leading to the Iraq invasion and the innumerable unethical/illegal practices by the Bush administration. Newspapers and TV news media have likely already decided that they have "done their job" protecting the constitution and the rule of law. The right wing will continue to shout down any dissent by threats and personal attacks (led, no doubt, by Karl Rove), so that the whole issue will be dead in few months despite the glaring need for further attention to the violations perpetrated by the Bush/Rove/Cheney/Rumsfeld team and their "think tank" cronies. The 2006 election promises little change because the Democrats are held in nearly as low esteem as the Republicans by the electorate. The neocons will have a free hand to continue to promote their agenda for at least three more years. Unless there is a true revolt by the grass roots electorate, we can expect nothing but the usual pap and entertainment from the media.