Interestingly Enough, The Vice President Is A Guy Named Ford

Pervez Musharraf, seeing the writing on the wall, resigns before impeachment.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf quit office on Monday to avoid impeachment charges, nearly nine years after the key U.S. ally in its campaign against terrorism took power in a coup.

Speculation the former army chief would resign had mounted since the fractious coalition government, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said this month it planned to impeach him.

"Whether I win or lose, the nation will lose," Musharraf, 65, said of the impeachment process in an hour-long televised address in which he passionately defended his record.

"The honor and dignity of the country will be affected and in my view, the honor of the office of president will also be affected."

It's always good when you quit your job and stocks jump up four percent. That's an ego-builder. This is also good for the soul:

Indeed, celebrations broke out across the country after the announcement, with people dancing and handing out sweets.

"Thank God he's resigned. The country will do much better now," said Mohammad Ilyas, 30, in Karachi.

I actually agree with the revelers. A Pakistan edging toward democracy, however slowly, will start to cut off extremism. If their government can successfully fight poverty, all the better (this is of course a long shot, but it's an area where the US can help). Musharraf's dictatorship and tight connections to both the seat of power and the military is a dangerous mix for a nuclear-armed country. Let's hope this is a better way forward.

UPDATE: Spencer Ackerman has a more cautious take:

Just because Musharraf is out doesn't mean things are going to get better. In fact, it's a mistake to view any country, but specifically Pakistan, as the product of a single strongman. To go back to something I wrote on Friday, the job of the next administration is to build ties with Pakistan -- the nuclear-armed South Asian power that, among other things, has an uninvited guest named Usama bin Laden -- that go beyond the contingency of the moment. It's inconceivable that the Bush administration could have surveyed the post-9/11 landscape, observed the centrality of Pakistan to the war on terror, and said, "You know what we should do? Base our ties to Pakistan on a mercurial dictator." The next administration may have to distance itself from the U.S. in order to underscore the end of the Musharraf era, and if so, that's a mistake the U.S. can ill-afford at a time of resurgent al-Qaeda in Pakistan and rising U.S. casualties in Afghanistan.

The ruling coalition has based most of their time in office so far on getting rid of Musharraf. With that mission accomplished, they have to actually govern a country which is very fractious. Good luck to them.