The last time we had a White House characterized by rampant criminality the final days saw a psychotic Richard Nixon talking to the pictures on the walls. The Third Reich ended with Hitler in the Bunker, but Karl Rove’s visions of a thousand year Reich, or permanent majority, ends after eight years with only a whimper as the Bush administration slowly fades away.
George Bush gave his Farewell Adress last night and now leaves to take one last vacation at Camp David. Although the term officially lasts until Tuesday at noon, with Monday being a legal holiday most west wing staffers are turning in their building passes and BlackBerrys by 9:00 p.m. tonight.
Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, Counselor Ed Gillespie, and Press Secretary Dana Perino will remain around on stand by. It is hardly necessary. As we saw with both 9/11 and with Katrina that even if there is an emergency it will take George Bush so long to respond that they might as well wait until Obama moves in.
Appearing on The Daily Show recently, Dana Perino compared the final days to “graduating from high school or college because there’s an end date, and you’re going to have to leave, and you’re going to leave all your friends– but you’re excited about the next chapter, and nobody has any idea about what you’re going to do next.”
Finally on Tuesday our long national nightmare will be over:
On Tuesday, Special Agent Donald White of the U.S. Secret Service will shadow President Bush, sit in the customary front “shotgun” seat of the limousine, and guard the President until noon. At 12:01, Agent White steps over to a position behind Barack Obama.
President and Mrs. Bush will helicopter to Andrews Air Force Base after the swearing-in (they do not remain on Capitol Hill for the luncheon); the Cheneys drive to Andrews. At 1:20 pm, the former President will speak (no cameras) to hundreds of loyal friends invited to come out to a hangar at Andrews for the send-off. A handful of these friends have been invited to fly on what can can no longer be called Air Force One (it’s only Air Force One when it ferries the President) to Midland, Texas.