Something just occurred to me. In the past six months, we’ve gotten all these leaks about blatantly illegal spying programs carried out by the Bush administration. I was contemplating the fact that the only reason they have not resulted in impeachment hearings is because the Republicans control Congress and will not allow any investigation or official acknowledgment that the programs are in fact illegal and unconstitutional.

Then I considered if maybe these would resurface next year if Democrats won control of Congress (which, despite the Democrats’ best efforts, is looking more and more likely), but I realized that the right wing had invested way too much time and effort into establishing the “we’ve already gotten past that, so there’s nothing there” mentality commonly used by politicians to great success.

How lucky for Bush then, that these were leaked before Democrats took control. And then it hit me: what if luck had nothing to do with it? What if the White House saw a great enough chance that Democrats would gain enough control next year to make something out of all this, and decided to “immunize” themselves? After all, if these revelations had come about with a Democratic Congress, there would have been immediate investigations. Even if the Republicans still held the Senate, a House investigation would hold enough power that it might not protect against impeachment, and certainly would be incredibly damaging to the White House.

So how likely is it that the leaking of these programs was directed by the Bush administration as a way of safeguarding themselves? The leaks have come out at times not too damaging for Bush–beginning with the initial pre-Christmas release, which could not have been better-timed to avoid media scrutiny (the “take out the trash Friday” of the entire year). They have been leaked bit by bit and not all at once, spaced out almost conveniently, giving time for Republicans to downplay, excuse, and tough out the worst of the storm before the next tidbit was released, allowing for the acclimation process to dilute and legitimize each revelation before the next came out.

As a bonus, they got to be indignantly offended at every leak, branding media organizations they do not favor, as well as their political opponents, as traitors. We accepted these over-the-top accusations as Republican chest-beating and as probable projection–but it also brings to mind the Shakespearean adage that the GOP “protests too much, methinks.” Even for the GOP, recent protests have been too much, adding to my suspicion that this is more a political game than an actual excitement over national security being violated.

Note also the campaign against Democrats this election year being focused on the “fear” that Democrats would start investigating Bush, leading some Democrats to state positively that they would not do so.

Maybe I’m giving the Bush administration far too much credit. However, the course of events have played out in a way that would be highly beneficial to them in the event of a Democratic win this Fall.