Not much substantive here, just an idea.
I was surfing in that stream-of-consciousness manner around Wikipedia one night a few months ago (I can't even remember what I was originally reading about) when I came across this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
This was a sort of retroactive punishment gesture in ancient Rome; its aim was the purging of any sign of a person's life from its history, at least in the public sphere. And then it struck me: Could we make use of this today? I mean, not quite this far; after all, this way lies "the memory hole", and the memory of a society isn't something to be trifled with. After all, we might want to remember GWB (if only as a sort of national political villain). But maybe we might try something less drastic?
Ever since impeachment for George W. Bush was "taken off the table", it's been hard to think of some method of payback. And since he wasn't eligible to run last year, there was no way for the American electorate to show their displeasure directly. Well, now that he's out of office, how about some sort of gesture whereby his Administration might be officially repudiated? Could Congress, say, officially acknowledge that George W. Bush was not legitimately President Of The United States, at least for his first term, in the manner of one of the Doges of Venice (as referenced in the Wikipedia article), thereby making Barack Obama #43? Could we determine that Bush Admin orders would thereby have no legal force? What, by now, could the U.S. do directly in regard to George W. Bush that (a) would be constitutional and (b) would show the world that it had rejected his Administration's outlook and way of governing?
Better answers than mine will be welcomed with open arms, of course.