BUSH AND POMBO SITTIN' IN A TREE... SELLING IT (AND SCREWING YOU AND ME)

Last night AOL asked its users how history would judge George Bush. The last time I looked, over a quarter million people had responded and they didn't think much of Bush and don't think historians will either. 67% rate his presidency very unfavorably (and 5% somewhat unfavorably); in other words, 72% think he's doing a bad job. And 71% think history will think the same way. Bush doesn't fare any better on any specific issues-- in fact he mostly does worse. 74% think he sucks on Iraq; 70% rate him a failure on Rove's hallmark image issue, terrorism; 75% think the CEO president is clueless on the economy; and 68% think he's made bad judicial choices. AOL didn't ask about how he's handling the environment. And they didn't ask anything about Bush's honesty, integrity or his relationship to the Republican culture of corruption that has completely taken over Washington.

Even the right-wing media hacks and suck-ups at the WASHINGTON POST have noticed that the U.S. hasn't seen a more corrupt regime when it comes to our natural resources since the Teapot Dome Scandal of one of Bush's closest antecedents, the incompetent and corrupt Republican president, Warren G. Harding (whose policies of greed and shortsightedness helped usher in the Great Depression). And if Bush is today's Harding, the other arch-villain of the day, nutcase Republican Senator Albert Fall, also has a current day heir: Richard "Let's Sell the National Parks" Pombo. The $100,000 bribe Fall took back in the 1920's may seem like peanuts compared to the money Pombo and Bush have been raking in, but at least it shows the kind of continuity in Republican values that pollsters never get to when they interview people about being born again and hating gays and immigrants.

Someone at the POST stopped setting up racist blogs long enough to allow Juliet Eilperin do a story called "Conservationists Vie To Buy Forest Habitat," the title of which barely gives a clue about how Pombo and Bush have decided to sell off preserved natural forests to developers in order to keep granting tax reductions to the multimillionaires who finance their political careers-- and unearned, fancy lifestyles. Although the story focused on the 44 million acres of privately-held forest land being sold off to... Bush's pals in Bahrain? who knows?... it is the 300,000 acres of national forest that is most disgraceful.

According to Conservation Fund President Lawrence Selzer, "The nation has never seen anything like this. It has the potential to permanently and profoundly change the landscape of America." Until Bush (and Pombo) came along, every President, both Democrats and Republicans, have added to our nation's natural treasure trove. Bush (and Pombo) want to sell as much off to their financial backers as they can while they still can. We're probably stuck with Bush until January 1, 2009. Pombo, on the other hand, can be dealt with this November. Jerry McNerney is a Democrat who can help Pombo fulfill his destiny as a lobbyist. You can here, right here, if you're feelin' a little flush today.