Imagining Bush The Day After

As astute observers already know, the people who brought you the worst military and economic debacle in U.S. history have already been fired, jailed, erased or removed from office(s): yes, that’s the celebrated Neocons, who came in through the Dick Cheney that even Brent Scowcroft no longer recognizes, and who left as Israel’s sway over foreign, military and intelligence policy became a source of criminal charges.

But wait, we still have two people left: Neocon Cheney, who continues to give his low-register speech on terror whenever wound up, and Mr. Bush Jr. 

I know what Cheney will do after January 22nd next year: he’ll keep giving the same speech he’s been giving since 9.11.   But what about Jr?  Who will tell him the truth: that history isn’t going to be rewritten for him, the way it was for Iran Contra miscreant Reagan?  Who will tell him that, well, no one wants to talk to him, no one wants to hear his ideas, no one wants to admit to ever knowing him, no one wants to be near him, no one wants to read his non-books, no one wants to see him on tv, no one wants to hear him on the radio, no one wants to have him visit their country, no one wants his help with their campaigns, no one wants his advice on anything, no one wants to visit him, no one wants to hire him for his contacts, no one wants to pay him millions per hour for a single speech (like the Japanese did for Reagan), no one wants to be his drinking buddy (well, not too many), and no one wants to take crappy video of him chainsawing bushes on a meaningless, unproductive ranch populated by horses he’s afraid of (according to Vicente Fox)?

While most ex presidents do things like Carter or Clinton, there is also the Nixon model: steam in your own bitter juices in an apartment somewhere, visited by one or two sycophants, till you pass away.

Do you think Jr. sees it yet?

What will it be like when, suddenly, the crowds of losers buffering him from reality just fade away, and he’s left with his “legacy”?

It was hard for Nixon to get into that green chopper the last time, but imagine how hard it’s going to be for Jr. to leave the protected womb / no-newspaper-or-book bubble he’s been in since pre-Governor days. 

Who will tell him what a complete loser he is, and what unspeakable damage he has done to the country and the world?  Poppy?  Karl? the Dickster?

Or will he, alone and left, for the first time, to his own devices, just sit quietlly, clueless, kind of upbeat, waiting, just as he did in that Florida schoolroom immediately after his nation was attacked on 9.11, just sitting there, for the longest time, kind of smiling, waiting for someone to tell him what to think or do next —