Counting Down the Dry-Hole Presidency

Now that the immigration legislation is on a ventilator, the New York Times is saying that George Bush has entered his "lame duck period." There are signs of Bush's lame-ness both big and small. The small signs are at the CoffeeTree book store in Morehead, KY. A couple of days ago, I spent eight bucks to buy four "1-20-09" buttons for my family. On top of that, the book store also carried little calculators that enable you to determine exactly how many days Bush has left in office. When people are celebrating the end of your term, it's safe to call you a lame duck.

There are bigger signs of lame-duckness in Washington. For the New York Times, the fact that there were 39 Republican votes against bringing up the immigration legislation is an indication of Bush's diminishing clout. Actually, Bush might not have any clout at all. The major players in the immigration legislation have been Jon Kyl of Arizona, John McCain, Teddy Kennedy, and the Democratic leadership. The major player for the Republicans is minority leader Mitch McConnell who is viewing immigration in terms of the future of the Republican Party. A future without George Bush.

Finally, Bush is becoming a pariah in his own party. Republican candidates took a lot of shots at Bush during the last debate. Newt Gingrich is also arguing that the Republican Party is doomed unless they can separate themselves from the Bush administration and its litany of failures.

Needless to say, George Bush himself is oblivious to all this. As Bush's long-time friend Donald Evans says, Bush was "typically undaunted by “dry holes” when he was a failed oil man in Texas. Why would he be discouraged by his dry-hole presidency?