To the bitter end, George W. Bush is proving to anybody willing to listen that he is not only the worst president in United States history but also just a horrible human being. Only a thoroughly rotten person would hand over the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department to a racist like Bradley Schlozman. Schlozman labeled anybody to the left of Joseph Lieberman a "pinko" or a "communist," and he is emblematic of the kind of extremist right-wing douche bags Bush appointed throughout the federal agencies and departments, and even to the courts.
It turns out that right-wing ideologues make terrible administrators -- Who would have known?
Under Bush, extremists who are filled with nothing but hatred and contempt for the role of government in society came to run the government. Cronies, incompetents, nincompoops, hypocrites, profiteers, lobbyists, liars, and criminals of all stripes comprised the "Bush Administration." Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, Victoria Clarke, Alberto Gonzales, Michael Mukasey, Brownie, Rummy, Condi and Dick. Right-wing nutbags all. Steven Griles and Dirk Kempthorne were Jack Abramoff's men at the Interior Department; Elaine Chao was the worst Secretary of Labor in American history; Margaret Spellings, the clueless Texan privatizer who doled out lucrative contracts to Republican donor companies that run educational testing services, the worst education secretary ever: "No Republican Donor Left Behind." Harvey Pitt and Chris Cox at the Securities and Exchange Commission enabled the biggest frauds ever committed in the expansive history of Wall Street frauds -- I'd like to shove about $62 trillion worth of credit default swaps right up their asses. Stephen Johnson, the puppet of the nation's biggest polluters, ran the Environmental Protection Agency. And on and on and on. The lowliest gangster or card sharp is morally far superior to any of these jackals. And guess where they're all heading off to? To become highly paid corporate lobbyists and shills, that's where!
In not one "exit interview" Bush has given recently did any "journalist" ask him: Why did you appoint people to key government agencies and departments who do not believe in the missions of those agencies and departments?
No "reporter" in any exit interview asked Bush: Why did you allow your 2004 campaign to Swift Boat and smear John Kerry's sterling military service record?
Not one of them asked: Why did you say "bring 'em on" when the Iraqi insurgency began? Didn't you understand that more American service personnel might die because of such a taunt?
Not one interviewer asked: Why did you have to cling to Dick Cheney by your side and not allow transcripts or recordings of your testimony before the milquetoast 9-11 Commission? Why all the secrecy? Why the subterfuge and lies and misinformation about 9-11 if everything was on the up-and-up?
No interviewer asked: Why did you allow Jeff Gannon to pose as a White House correspondent? And produce fake video news releases? And paid Armstrong Williams to shill for you? Why did you send "message force multipliers" out on the public airwaves to sell the Iraq war?
No one asked: Why didn't you go to the FISA court, a secret court that almost never denies presidential requests for warrants, to obtain authorization for your NSA surveillance program? In 2004 was Karl Rove using the NSA to spy on the Kerry campaign?
The public will not get the repudiation of Bush it longs for. Sure, the Republicans were pummeled in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Big deal. So what? Elections are supposed to be "normal" in a democracy. Hell, the Republicans also got pummeled in 1974 and 1976 but they came roaring back in 1980.
No. Elections are not nearly satisfying enough. We need some prosecutions. Some people need to go to jail. Whenever I see Ari Fleischer, Karl Rove, Torie Clark, or Karen Hughes on TV it feels like a dagger piercing through my heart tearing at the essence of what it means to live in a democracy where the rule of law means something.
I guess being Bush (or one of his cronies) means never having to say you're sorry.
He should pay us all reparations for the misery he put us through these past eight years.