Breaking News: The Bush-Cheney era "ended" today...

Something so many of us have longed for, lived for, these past seven years, has finally happened earlier today.  

Trouble is, it didn't get a lot of attention, what with everyone within range of either a keyboard, television camera, and/or microphone breathlessly relating last night's results rolling in from Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island.  

Nonetheless, let's be clear: George W. Bush became a lame duck President this afternoon.

Mister "Nineteen Percent And Holding Steady" confidently walked out onto the Rose Garden of the White House, in order to sell Americans on a most peculiar notion: "Change" actually means "More of the same, but with a different name on the door."   He formally annointed Senator John McCain the effective head of their party, predicting a rosy electoral outcome on November 4.  

Why, you may ask, would McCain be so eager to make nice in public with the man whose campaign viciously smeared him eight years back?  Once more, political ambition trumps personal honor.  As my father puts it on his Swungnotes blog, "John McCain really, really wants to be your President" -- see  http://inegales.blogspot.com/... for his analysis on this.

Dismissing queries from those pesty journalists, about how he could in any way have a negative impact on the campaign, our President was confident: "They're not going to be voting for me.  I've had my time in the Oval Office.  It's not about me.  I've done my bit."

Of course, he wouldn't be the man he is, the Leader of this Increasingly-Less-Free World, if he didn't get the important stuff wrong.  This election is about nothing if it's not a direct referendum on eight years of 9/11, Slam Dunk, Curveball, Old Europe, Valerie Plame, Katrina, Halliburton, Blackwater, Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, Terri Schiavo, Fredo, scary foreign people, scary gay newlyweds, $4-a-GALLON oil, Warrantless Wiretapping, sub-prime mortgages, and so forth. Intelligent design, indeed!

Obviously Bush hasn't surrendered the nuclear launch codes or the pardon powers---he remains in literal power.  What's important to note is not that he's resigning, but that he's resigned.   Turns out, whatever your religious sentiments may be, that the end truly is nigh---the end of Bush 43's political era, that is.  He's yesterday's news, and this election is about Tomorrow.

•  Tip Jar...

  Be sure to pay your bar staff, they're working hard tonight.

  by Spindizzy on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:03:15 PM PDT

  •  I'll drink to that! n/t

    by 4democracy on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:24:18 PM PDT

•  They can still do a lot of harm n/t

  by hcc in VA on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:05:31 PM PDT

  •  And it is still their aim to do so. n/t

    by beemerr90s on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:11:09 PM PDT

  •  Leaving office without Iraq's oil is really

    making Cheney twitchy.

    by PatsBard on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:13:05 PM PDT

    •  So does Darth then....

      Appoint himself fourth branch for four more years?

      by manwithnoname on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:20:07 PM PDT

      •  Addington

        by Friend of the court on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 03:28:04 PM PDT

  •  re: Your sig...we pointed the cart the right way,

    but those darned donkeys are still in the ditch, hunkered down...and their feet are all tangled up in the trunks of those darned elephants, and they're still pulling the cart the wrong way.

    Holding those little hooves to the fire...wonder if that is going to be better than our last strategy of branding Congress as 'ours' in 2006?  We have already had to learn the disappointing 'realism' that simply branding Congress as 'ours' for a couple of years doesn't necessarily make it so.  While holding all those elephant trunks to the fire is what needs to happen, the head ditch-loving donkeys seem to be coming between us and and the wheels of Justice...they just don't seem to be turning.  Gotta wonder what sort of carrots they're sucking on.

    There's also the frustrating problem of being able to define just where 'the table' is, in our bi-partisan Congressional cart, and what actually belongs on it, for consideration and deliberation, and how subpoena power is going to be used in any other way than an impotent one.  Seems the head donkeys may have made a number of deals under the cart, or in the ditch, with some very muddy head elephants.

    So, I'm eager to see about 'cutting free' those donkeys who are failing to accept the bit and take the direction given by 'The People' in 2006. And when will any redress begin that actually impacts the road-blocking, donkey-entangling elephants?  

    Those donkeys of 'ours' are braying that we should just wait until 2009 to try again to make progress, hold investigations, or use that scary subpoena power, or other distracting things!  They're so sure we have to elect a new head donkey, or elephant, first, before all that other stuff can possibly be given a spot on the table...that is, if we still want to dredge up all that vile past, that might best be left in the ditch as the donkeys take over.

    They just don't get that it behooves 'our' donkeys to get back on the right path, and Stay that Course, the one that actually represents 'We The People', which is: defend the Constitution from threats internal and external, uphold the laws, and all that oath of office stuff, inspite of the distractions of all those barrels of campaign dollars to be collected, buckets of slime to throw, lobbyist pigs to lie down with...

    All I can say is, brothers and sisters, Bray for us, please.

    by antirove on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:41:33 PM PDT

    •  Brilliant, and with animal magnetism for sure.

      I think all the donkeys resemble your remarks.

      by hcc in VA on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 08:30:30 PM PDT

•  19%?

  What do you mean by that?

  by CO Democrat on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:24:27 PM PDT

  •  That's W's job approval rating...well under a C-

    and that 19% approval rating is probably best deemed 'Failing and below the level where an immediate resignation should happen', at least in a world where rational considerations were to hold sway.  

    This level of citizen displeasure should be taken as a 'fall on your sword' indicator by the Commandeer in Cheat; at least it would be in any free and democratically run nation, where leaders have the integrity to resign when they've abjectly lost the mandate and support of the majority of citizens.  Now, I'm forced to give Richard Milhouse Nixon credit for having more integrity, a greater sense of accountability to the public and good of this nation, than W can even conceive of.

    by antirove on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:51:54 PM PDT

    •  When did this happen?

      I know these things fluctuate, but last summer it looked like 24% and then it went back up to about 31%.  Is there a new poll about this?

      by CO Democrat on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 04:24:33 PM PDT

•  And the McCain-Bush-Cheney Era has begun...nt

  by ArtDemo on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:27:01 PM PDT

  •  McCain can and will distance himself from

    Bush. Remember the Sarko vs. Sego race in France. This is shaping up to be the same.

    by vlajos on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:34:24 PM PDT

    •  It will be very tough doing that, the Democrats

      must use every photo op that McCain has with Shrub. Bush III, thats what we muct get across to everyone.

      by ArtDemo on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:36:57 PM PDT

      •  Sarkozy and Chirac had the same relationship.

        McCain will beat HRC relatively easily unfortunately.

        by vlajos on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:56:44 PM PDT

        •  Not so sure...might be harder for HRC to win

          over McCain than Obama, but I'd have to argue that the level of discontent in this nation, the urgent pressure for change, the desperate need for relief from the terrible load of uncertainty and anxieties due to the past assaults on justice and rights and economic security, just might be enough to tip a (D) into the White House, even if laden with HRC's excess baggage.

          If HRC is the nominee, given the state the GOP has put our nation, it would be her election to lose, if she can but steer straight and she works very hard to win enough trust and respect to get the levers flipped for her, even if she cannot inspire cash support from a million of the average folks.  

          The idea that McCain can actually draw out more than 50% of voters to vote for him seems quite a stretch.  There is so many who are very disgruntled with the GOP.  And so many within the GOP are already disgruntled with McCain, and for deeply diverse reasons.

          However, I'd have to admit that the prospect of seeing the presidential succession run Bush 41, Clinton 42, Bush 43, Clinton 44, is enough to turn my stomach.

          by antirove on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 03:08:50 PM PDT

          •  Your last statement

            is revolting to me also.

            by vlajos on Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 07:14:45 AM PDT

      •  how about

        every photoop McCain has ever had with Bush. I think there's a "The Kiss" in there somewhere.

        And for Republicans, there are plenty of choice quotes from Bush and his people about McCain dating from when McCain was running against Bush for the GOP nomination. I'd like to see dead-tree mailings sent to Bush's 20%ers with those quotes.

        "Insane" McCain is a name the Bush campaign came up with for him. Personally, I'd like to see him called that so often that McCain answers to it in public. Given how infrequently Bush tells the truth, I think we should encourage him when he does that, even if it's by accident or he thinks he's lying.

        by alizard on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 04:11:30 PM PDT

    •  We'll see how much slack the Chain of Cheney's

      office allots to Deputy McCain.  

      I'm guessing, triangulation is still the main game in town and good ol' straight shootin' John is expressly just one point in it.  I don't expect he'll be allowed to carry live 'ammo' in the Mayberry he will be tasked to try to recreate, due to fear he might accidently take aim at real criminals.

      by antirove on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:58:25 PM PDT

•  Does this open door for Jeb Bush as VP w. McCain?

  by drmah on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 02:53:20 PM PDT

  •  I think Jeb

    holds off until 2012 and hopes for a one-term Hillary Clinton as winner.

    That's what the rest of the potential GOP candidate pool smart enough to walk and chew gum at the same time did.

    by alizard on Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 04:13:40 PM PDT