Legacy

Well, that was fun, wasn’t it.

The President of the United States of America prevaricated and postured his way through his State of the Union address to Congress and the American people, then toddled off to bed for another restful night’s sleep. It was way past his bedtime.

I didn’t watch the address on television. Frankly, I can’t stand to watch Bush. I did tune in my local NPR affiliate, though, so I could listen. I had good intentions. It was, I thought, the least I could do, given that I planned to put in my two cents worth about it here today.

But I could only stand to listen to about ten minutes of the SOTU. In that short time, Bush had already told so many lies – either outright or by omission -- I was afraid I was going to vomit, listening to Congress applaud him. I pointed my remote at the radio and hit “off.”

I felt better right away.

Congress didn’t turn their backs on him. I was hoping, I really was. They didn’t even, as one witty commenter wrote at the Carpetbagger Report blog this morning, let off one loud fart. That would’ve been appropriate, if crude. Another commenter at the same blog wished that Bush had been facing British Parliament members, who’d have been catcalling and booing and shouting questions and rebuttals at him. “His head would have exploded,” the commenter wrote.

What an image. This man is our President?

For the first time in my life, I wish we did have a parliament like Great Britain's here. At least we could be rowdy and honest, admit Bush a truly world-class fuck-up, and get rid of him. We could turn our full attention to cleaning up the monstrous mess he’s made. In fact, we might have gotten rid of him years ago, before he ran amok.

Instead, we’re stuck in rhetorical mud up to our waists. All we can do is wave our arms and cuss for the next two years while this spoiled psychopath continues to slash and burn the Constitution, shit on the American people and laugh at as it all sinks deeper and deeper into the mire of history’s failed governments.

If you’d told me six years ago that the democratic government the Founders of this country created would be helpless in the face of a megalomaniac presidency – helpless to stop him, to remove him from office, to do anything to halt the forward grinding roll of his insanity, I wouldn’t have believed you.

Well, I was wrong. It’s appalling that the only thing the 110^th Congress will do – even with a Democratic majority in both Houses – is to come up with a toothless, non-binding resolution against Bush’s escalation of the war in Iraq. It has no power. It won’t stop him or his enablers. Bush will treat it with the contempt it deserves.

On the other hand, Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, who delivered the Democratic response to Bush’s State of the Union address, spoke the plain, unvarnished truth. His speech was simple, eloquent and damning. I didn’t hear it, either, but like the SOTU, I read it afterwards. As someone who has spent much of her life as either a member of the military or working closely with soldiers of all ranks and from all walks of life, I was gratified that he pointed out that these good American citizens serve their country knowing full well that they might be called upon to sacrifice their lives. Webb spoke of the trust they place in their leaders not to send them to their deaths for no good reason.

Bush has trampled all over that trust. He’s made a mockery of it, referring to himself as the “commander in chief,” wearing mock uniforms to puff up his ego and sending them into needless battle without enough troop strength, equipment, materiel, armor or support. He’s a dangerous liar, an incompetent criminal who’s been handed the keys to the country and turned loose. And what about all those failures in his previous life?

Well, he’s showing us, isn’t he. It’s all about his “legacy.”

George W. Bush’s “legacy” is nothing but death and destruction. I wanted my Congress, which represents me and the other 70 percent of the people in this nation who are horrified by him and his napalm administration to show some spine, have the courage turn their backs on this petty dictator and get down to the somber business of toppling him.

Didn’t happen. And here we are, 24 days into 2007, nearly four years since Bush started his war. We have over 3,000 American armed services members dead, tens of thousands more maimed for life, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead.

And the clock is still ticking.