way, way, way too late for that, bushies

I was hoping that de facto President George W. Bush would fade away after Barack Obama takes the oath of office on Tuesday. Instead, we see that he wants to do more with his post-de-facto-presidency than just have a stupid "I love me", supporter-and-energy-company paid, presidential library.

Seems he wants to establish a "Freedom Institute." Said institute will, according to Bush's former counselor and permanent lackey Dan Bartlett, allegedly "become an incubator of ideas, discussion and debate about the issues that were front and center during his presidency, including the controversy. The idea here is to have a place where that debate can continue."

Somehow, I doubt that. Bush hardly tolerated dissent within his Administration, at least not on the topics he was actually paying attention to. I don't see him exactly opening up to Michael Moore or Paul Krugman, etc, to "debate" Bush's appalling record. It will be a center for hagiography centered on St George of Texas (the Younger). And you know what, I bet that "torture" and "Katrina" and "firing US attorneys for being insufficiently partisan" and "shredding our civil liberties" and "ignoring the warnings before 9/11" will be nowhere to be found.

And now for a real laugher. Mark Langdale, an old Bush Texas crony who got to be Ambassador to Costa Rica (clearly running a string of hotels is adequate training for the job of diplomacy in the Bush regime), is president of the George W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation.

And Langdale, apparently keeping a straight face, said this "policy" institute ("policy" being Bush-talk for self-serving asskissing suck-upism) will be "a place where you're trying to advance effective policy solutions above a partisan level. "

Well WHY the HELL did Bush wait till AFTER his misbegotten Presidency to try to advance effective policy solutions above a partisan level? I mean, isn't that just a little bit late? If Bush and his boss Dick Cheney and his senior minions Rumsfeld, Rice, Gonzales, and the rest had advanced effective policy solutions above a partisan level, Bush wouldn't have a sub-30% approval rating. If they had advanced effective policy solutions above a partisan level, Bush would be a revered beloved President who could look forward to his retirement.

Instead, this is one more step in trying to airbrush history. The best defense against being deemed a failure by history is to be effective. Bush had his chance. He failed.