Baker-Acheson

Today's NY Times has a story on Bush's appointment of Jim Baker to try to help him get a new idea for Iraq:

WASHINGTON, April 23 — In the late 1960's, an anguished President Lyndon B. Johnson sought advice from a respected elder statesman on the Vietnam quagmire. In part because of the private counsel of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, a onetime hawk turned skeptic on the war, Johnson shifted course in 1968, halting the bombing of North Vietnam and announcing that he would not run for re-election.

The analogy is far from perfect, but Republicans and Democrats are seeing parallels between the quiet designation last month of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III to head up a Congressionally mandated effort to generate new ideas on Iraq and the role of Acheson, who served under President Harry S. Truman.

Now let's see. Acheson got Johnson to stop the bombing and leave the White House. If the analogy holds up, maybe Jim Baker can get Bush to pull out the troops and resign the presidency. With any luck, maybe he could talk Cheney into resigning too.