Post-Bush Bush

Although Jeb Bush has apparently eaten everything in reach since leaving the Florida governor's mansion, many on the far right think it is he-- and he alone-- who will bring some semblance of honor and dignity back to the Bush name. They're urging him to go on a diet and run for the Senate seat Mel Martinez is abandoning. His approval rating-- Republicans claim-- was 63% when he left office.

His brother, on the other hand, is leaving office lucky that there are enough morons in this country that his own approval rating never quite reached down to a single digit. He is, however, leaving office as the most despised man to ever sit in the White House. If you've noticed that he's refused to do anything about the country's steady slide into a Depression, it isn't unthinkable that it might be because he's already trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his miserable life. Another time and another place, it would, of course, be seppuku. Some have suggested euthanasia. But, more likely, he's destined to descend back into abject alcoholism. That will probably have to do instead of a trial, a blindfold and a last cigarette. Bush may entertain hopes but he knows in his heart how history will judge him and even referred to it, jokingly at the unveiling of a portrait at a private club in Philly: "Welcome to my hanging."

CNN, on the other hand, is treating the question of What Next For Bush, as though he were a real president, instead of some nincompoop who had the office stolen for him... twice.

As the days dwindle until President Bush joins what Herbert Hoover called the "most exclusive trade union in the world," the unpopular commander in chief appears decidedly enthusiastic about embracing a lower profile, recently declaring that he's more than ready to forgo the limelight.

..."The first year for every ex-president is really hard," said David Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. "You have to raise all this money for your library, you've got to build an organization, you have to write a huge memoir, your papers are in disarray, and you suddenly realize your mistakes because your pace slows down."

Bush has more than a month left in office, but planning for his post-presidential year began more than two years ago. In many ways, the process is in full swing.

Fundraising and planning for his presidential library, to be built on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, is well under way. The president has started interviews with high-profile journalists, by all accounts already trying to define his legacy.

He's been out flogging book ideas to publishers but there are no takers and "the public's overwhelming disdain for the president may delay a speaking tour and Bush ascent to the corporate boardroom." One plan his team is working on is a "Freedom Institute," to promote a Bush vision of "democracy" abroad. That at least will provide lots of fodder-- for a few months-- for bloggers.

The institute, where Bush is expected to play a significant role, is expected to be unaffiliated with an academic institution. Its members are expected to be analysts whose views are in line with the neoconservative outlook that shaped the president's approach to foreign policy.

"This is going to be Bush vision." Brinkley said of the institute. "Bush has never liked the academics, and this is a nonacademic institute aimed at cutting to the core of things: only pro-democracy foot soldiers who are green-lit by George and Laura Bush are in the mix."

Remember back in 2003 at an AEI luncheon when Richard Perle predicted that a square in Baghdad would be named in Bush's honor? ("I'll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush.") If Perle doesn't wind up in prison as a war criminal, he ought to be the Executive Director of the Freedom Institute which should be located, of course, right on that very grand square.