"Screw him at a more opportune time"

Jonathan Zasloff says:

Jeffords threatened to leave the caucus, giving the Democrats control over the Senate, unless Bush acceeded to his demand for greater special education funding (which Bush had promised and remains the right thing to do).

Obviously, the Bush people were livid. It was Cheney who persuaded the President not to back down, and the result was Jeffords bolting to the Democrats. Like so much else about Cheney, his advice was bad. Had 9/11 not occurred, it could have kept Bush from unified control of Congress for the remainder of his term.

But the interesting position, as Gellman describes it, was taken by Karl Rove, who said something to the effect of: “give him what he wants now, and then we will screw him at a more opportune time.” What Rove meant by that, or what he was thinking, is not mentioned, mainly because it became moot.

But it might be worth thinking about ahead of time if, as I fear, Lieberman stays off the reservation.

What's really worth thinking about is how close Democrats actually came to following Rove's advice. When Lieberman was their 51st vote, they gave him what he wanted: A great deal of leeway; retention of his chairmanship; quiescence when he chose to hit the trail with John McCain. The opportune time to "screw him" was yesterday, and they didn't do it. So I guess you can say they got it half right.

Via.