October surprise

John Dean believes the Bushies are hatching an October surprise in order to regain some political advantage before the November elections:

If there is no "October Surprise," I would be shocked. And if it is not a high-risk undertaking, it would be a first. Without such a gambit, and the public always falls for them, Bush is going to lose control of Congress. Should that happen, his presidency will have effectively ended, and he will spend the last two years of it defending all the mistakes he has made during the first six, and covering up the errors of his ways.

There is, however, the possibility of another terrorist attack, and if one occurred, Americans would again rally around the president - wrongly so, since this is a presidency that lives on fear-mongering about terror, but does little to truly address it. The possibility that we might both suffer an attack, and see a boost to Bush come from it, is truly a terrifying thought.

I'm not sure whether Dean is hinting here that the Bushies may stage a fake terrorist attack, but that's certainly what comes into my mind when I read this. Frankly, as horrible as it sounds I wouldn't put it past them.