Profoundly Thankful for Your Legacy Tour, George

I would like to extend my personal thanks to George Bush, Dick Cheney and the rest of the members of the outgoing administration for their efforts over the past few weeks in trying to define the last eight years on every media outlet with the possible exceptions of the Jim Rome Show and Howard Stern.

By doing so they have reminded us in ways those of us who have been writing about them, since what seems to be the dawn of time, could not. They have, point by point, word by word and image by image both reinforced and re-inventoried every evil deed and mistake they have made while in office.

Bush himself has re-affirmed the advanced extent of his mental illness. Cheney has given us reason to nod our heads and think, "Yes, he really is the most dangerous man in America." The rest of the cast has been wonderfully consistent in their roles, too. Thank you Ms. Perino.

Unless more is revealed about how they have done everything in their power to fuck up the United States of America (a good bet), this is the last weekend many of us will be forced to write about these chi-ractors.

I won't miss them, even though they are easy targets. The problem is that they do not and will not reap what they sow.

We do and we will.

That said, Tuesday is the real New Year's Day.

Happy new year, America!

The Bad Democrats Begin to Surface

A lot of people have done a lot of complaining about Congressional Democrats, especially Senate Democrats. Were they briefed about torture and illegal wiretapping? Did they know and do nothing? Are they complicit?

And who are they?

Today we know who two of them are. Dianne Feinstein and Jay Rockafeller came out of the closet and showed their true Blue Dog colors by opposing Leon Panetta, or at least opposing the manner in which his appointment was announced (or leaked).

We're going to be seeing more of this. And when some Democrats oppose people like Panetta, who was a strong opponent of torture and wiretapping, they identify themselves as the same people who secretly pushed the Bush agenda along in Congress, giving in at every turn.

President Obama is bound to piss off a lot of people, even those who support him. Rick Warren is a good example. I'll take a dozen Rick Warren's moose-like bellowing to God in public in exchange for Obama appointees Dawn Johansen, David Ogden, Elena Kagan and Tom Perrelli who will help rehabilitate the Justice Department.

Progressives cannot behave like right-wingers and begin to jump ship when Obama does something that steps on their own personal agenda. Your agenda is yours and Obama's is his.

So far he is living up to his campaign promises, pretty much.

The next time you find yourself getting pissed off at Obama, say these words out loud,"George Bush."

But Blue Dog Democrats be warned. We're watching you very carefully. Your butts are at stake.