Beware of the Wounded Beast II

I have commented on several occasions that, now that the Bush presidency is imploding, we should beware of the wounded beast. Glenn Greenwald seems to agree in his post about the wingnuts response to the Mary McCarthy affair. Here's the part of his post I have in mind:

Digby posted yesterday on the fact that Bush followers are "agitating to criminalize dissent" and compiled additional examples and documentation. As I have pointed out before, there is conventional wisdom that a weakened and unpopular president becames less powerful and less able to pursue extremist policies, but I actually think that in the case of this president, the more weakened and unpopular he becomes, the more desperate he will be to lash out -- in bitterness, with a desire for retribution, and to display strength.

Purging CIA leakers, prosecuting whistle-blowers, imprisoning journalists who publish politically embarrassing revelations -- we are seeing only the incipient symptoms of those efforts.