February 26, 2011 04:38 AM UTC

Are There Any Bushies Who Still Have a Legacy?

• 8 Comments
• by: Diogenesdemar

(THIS IS NOT A TEST)

I enjoy puzzles.  This diary was inspired earlier today when after posting some snark on the Dubya Cancels Denver Speech diary, I got to pondering — what happened to that happy cast of folks from those good ‘ole Dubya days?  Did anyone survive their time with “the decider” without some whiff of scandal, foible, corruption, or ineptitude?  

To help jog your memory, somewhere between the personal bookends defining his presidency — his best moment (catching a 7-½ pound largemouth bass), and his worst moment (being dissed by Kanye) — we have the 2,922 days of the two-term presidency of George W. Bush.  By my accounting those in-between moments included, but were certainly not limited, to:

Neo-conservatism, tax cuts, No Child Left Behind, 9/11, the Patriot Act, (no) Kyoto protocol, the global war on terrorism, Al-Qaeda, Usama Bin Laden, TSA, Enron, the “axis of evil”, Putin’s soul, the Taliban, the invasion of Afghanistan, Tora Bora, Powell’s testimony before the U.N., yellowcake uranium, a ” slam dunk”, WMDs, the invasion of Iraq, Abu Gharib, the “pretzel incident”, Valerie Plame, Katrina, military tribunals, the “mountain bike incident”, Guantanamo,  water-boarding, Cheney’s quail huntin’, Harriet Miers, John Roberts, “a thumpin’,” Samuel Alito, the recession, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns,  the stock market collapse, . . .

And, these Bush administration players and operatives, among others:

Richard Armitage, John Ashcroft, Ben Bernanke, Joshua Bolten, John Bolton, Michael Brown, Andrew Card, Elaine Chao, Dick Cheney, John Chu, Michael Chertoff, John Danforth, Ari Fleischer,  Louis Freeh, Robert Gates, Alberto Gonzales, Alan Greenspan, Stephen Hadley, Karen Hughes, Mike Leavitt, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Scott McClellan, Harriet Miers, John Negroponte, Dana Perino, Richard Perle, Paul O’Neill, Jim Nicholson, Gale Norton, Henry Paulson, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Tom Ridge, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Tommy Thompson,  Christine Todd Whitman, Paul Wolfowitz,  . . .

It’s only been a little over two years now, although in many ways it seems like decades.  We’ve had some time to better consider the impact of the players and the judgments of history.  The question that arose for me, and which I think might make some entertaining blog conversation:  Which, if any, of the folks who served with old #43 will history remember favorably — as having made a positive and lasting contribution to our country?

(Like me, you may not come to any decision, but the exercise certainly helped me to look a little much more favorably upon these past two years of President Obama and his administration.)