So let's assume for the moment that in a hard-fought election year, Dean beats W in November. No recounts necessary. Then Dean starts planning to take office two months later.
Will the Bush administration take a scorched-Earth line, doing as much damage as they can in that two months?
Every outgoing president tries to do some last-minute work for what they really believe in, or at least think would look good as part of their legacy. But will Bush go above and beyond the self-serving, to the truly diabolical?
And how different would those two months be than another four years of Bush?