The house of Bush is imploding on its idiot son, George, who was delivered the presidency by cunning handlers and opportunists. The black ink of publishing and the black on light blue computer screens will rapidly fill with the obituarial filler adding to and fleshing out existing revelations and many more to come. Revelations and insights outlined previously by dozens of insiders who have stepped away—at great cost and personal loss--from this fool, hoping for redemption and a correction in the course of the ship of state.
They’ve proclaimed and written encyclopedic reams, which many may have thought would be the magic stake driven into the heart of the monstrous disaster Bush is. Some of these published facts and accounts should have stopped or ended the rumbling rubble which Bush has led, created, and administered, but to no avail.
See Also http://www.dailykos.com/... for expanded discussion of the issues.
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As the long, ominous shadows of history close in on the twilight of Bush/Cheney tenure, the wolves have begun to come out to prey. George W. Bush is well aware of the fervor and fury of the critics.
The predatory writers, serious historians, and the second-level underlings (anxious to rid themselves of the stench of the failed Bush fiasco) will be out in big numbers. When they finish there won’t even be bones to pick. The public will gasp belatedly and feign, “If we only knew.”
Alas, as of old, the divine handwriting is on the high walls of the White House, “You’ve been weighed in the balances and found wanting.”
The besmirched reputation of the Executive Branch, the soiled politics of the Rehnquist Court decision, the pre-emptive and premeditated war with Iraq, the rape of the intent of the Constitution, the disinterest in domestic well-being and proper checks and balances in finances, the license for torture, and the grievous misuse of religion as a political justification, among other elements, will condemn the Bush Legacy to a virtual ashbin, no matter what institution or city of choice becomes the final home of G.W. Bush Library and Archives, his will be a museum of infamy.
David Swanson, co-founder of After Downing Street, @ http://www.smirkingchimp.com/... has applied his collective wisdom to the question of a self-pardon, Can Bush Pardon Himself?:
George Mason argued that we needed impeachment in the Constitution because a president might some day try "to stop inquiry and prevent detection" of wrongdoing within his administration or might "pardon crimes which were advised by himself."
James Madison maintained that if "the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty."
Swanson reminds the reader that impeachment is no longer an option, the self-pardon, while uncertain as to its constitutionality, remains a possibility, and contends, "self-pardon and preemptive pardon -- were so outrageously counter to the basic idea of a government of laws, that they lay outside the imagination of our nation's founders. Their unacceptability went without saying."
A preemptive pardon was not even imagined by (the Founder's in) discussion. A pardon simply was something done after a conviction.
Alexander Hamilton called pardons "exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt." Guilt comes after a trial, not before. Hamilton concludes his essay thus:
"[I]t would generally be impolitic beforehand to take any step which might hold out the prospect of impunity. A proceeding of this kind, out of the usual course, would be likely to be construed into an argument of timidity or of weakness, and would have a tendency to embolden guilt."
So many Bush actions are "outside the imagination" of the public holding to the basic concepts of our country. The excessive secrecy and the overt duplicity in executive operations under Bush won’t even leave the complete record as to his infractions and violations. Already vigorous administration attempts and successes have destroyed or removed factual and hard evidence needed to comprehend the extent of the Bush fiasco.
The possibility that the World Court at The Hague may take action against George W. Bush for international crime(s), following his departure from the White House, can not be entirely ruled out.
From the beginning, among the early actions this president took were steps to seal or secure the papers of his own governorship in Texas,and the sequestration and perhaps actual destruction of information about Iran/Contra under Bush’s father, George H. W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan. This has been accomplished.
Thousands of G.W. Bush executive and top level E-mails have gone missing. What more is there to say? We may never know the full extent of the damage done to our nation by this boneheaded Legacy-Savant—the idiot scion of a well-placed American family with ancestral ties back to British royalty. It’s the dreaded end of respect and honor, the loss of face which vane bluebloods fear.
Many Americans want a full accounting, perhaps even criminal charges to be brought against this team of nation wreckers. Others realize that there can be no long drawn out trials or actions which would doubtless tie up the national psyche for years to come and denigrate our national position to our own economic and military peril. In that spirit, a full pardon from Bush to Bush may serve a “least harmful” service.