Voldemort's plans and the Minister of Magic

[Tamee Livingston]

No: HPFGUIDX 78658

I keep stumbling in my attempts to figure out what if anything 
Voldemort has planned for the Wizarding World now that he's got 
a body.  I mean, the lying low and lulling everyone into a false 
sense of security, undermining both Harry and Dumbledore; that 
was clever strategy.  It would allow him to make alliances, 
infiltrate positions of power with almost no one being the wiser.  
It made sense; as others have speculated, Lucius could have been 
positioned to become the next MOM, and if nothing else, they already 
had Fudge in their back pockets.  

But then, there was that annoying trap and raid in the Dept of 
Mysteries, with Voldemort's return and Malfoy and other "safe" DEs 
exposed, and Harry and Dumbledore are no longer attention craving 
crackpots.  It's hard to see that the risks they took were worth it.  

However, I wonder if there was a back up plan in place.  I find it 
highly unlikely that Fudge is going to remain MOM for long.  He's 
shown himself to have screwed up big time, and I don't think any 
amount of backtracking is going to save his political hide.  So we're 
looking at a new MOM, and I'm wondering if perhaps a DE whose cover 
has not been blown could get the position.  I have no names to suggest, 
but I think the wizarding world is going to be looking for a stronger 
leader, a new Crouch as it were, to deal with the chaos that's bound 
to ensue, and I doubt that Dumbledore is going to take the job.  The 
sacrifice of Malfoy (who had already been named by Harry as a current 
DE) would be worth it, if they had a strong candidate to slip into the 
office.  Still, I don't know if Voldemort is as far seeing as all that.  
His plans to date have seem remarkably convoluted and not too bright.  
I really would like to admire him as a villain, but to date the only 
times he's impressed me was as Tom Riddle in COS and his ruthless "kill 
the spare" in GOF before he ruined it all by his stupid 
megalomaniacal prattling and dueling.

Any suggestions of what clever diabolical machinations Voldemort's got 
going would be greatly appreciated.  Also, if I have somehow parroted 
someone else's ideas, it was completely unintentional, and I 
apologize profusely.

Tamee