George W. Bush: legacy building

As it gets down in the dog days of the presidency of George W. Bush, who faced with a dismal popularity rating and an uncooperative Democratic Congress, is now focused on what the historians will be saying about him decades from now.

In the immediate future, it'll be pretty bad. The liberals who dominate the mass media and academia have never accepted that Al Gore lost the election eight years ago, much less that George Bush is a legitimate president. Except for a brief period right after 9/11, they have fought Bush tooth and toenail, and continue to do so.

Bush was sold out by the Republican majority in Congress in the first six years of his presidency. It had become decadent and corrupt, losing the real leaders who could have made something happen. Bill Frist as Senate Majority Leader and House Speaker Dennis Hastert were hacks at best, who could not keep the troops in line. The liberals recognized who were critical to the GOP agenda and functioning, and Borked them in a hurry, and the weak-kneed Republicans got rid of them.

I'm speaking, of course, of Louisiana Rep. Bob Livingston, who would have been far superior to Hastert as speaker; Tom DeLay, who was always the real power in the GOP caucus, even when Newt Gingrich was speaker; and Sen. Trent Lott. With these able, effective leaders out of the way, the GOP fell into disarray, log rolling and ward heeling.

Whatever else you could say about this trio, they knew how to exercise the levers of power, the liberals recognized it, and by banishing them, got a very ineffectual GOP leadership that slid into oblivion quickly. It was easy for the Democrats to reclaim the majority after the way the GOP congressional leadership stunk it up. It will be even easier to add to their majority in 2008, with a defeatist, woe-is-me mentality overtaking the congressional wing of the GOP.

For the last two years, Bush has had to fend for himself, with very little GOP leadership behind him. Despite this, he has done an impressive job wth the surge in Iraq, keeping the economy out of a major depression with his tax cuts, and building allies around the world, such as in France, Britain and Australia.

When perspective replaces crass short-term politcal pandering in a few years in evaluating the Bush presidency, it will look good indeed. He will be another Harry Truman, in terms of how he was vilified as he left office, but looked terrific as a more objective historical perspective took over.