Powerless Forward

You might have noticed that since Inauguration Day, there's been no mention of George W. Bush around here. This is kind of by design. I just felt that with Obama taking office and the Bush era finally behind us, the worst possible insult I could level at our illustrious former Failure-in-Chief would be to ignore him completely -- barring, of course, a truly newsworthy event like, say, his being arrested overseas, Pinochet-style, and put on a plane to the Hague.

But this little item is simply too good to let pass without at least a quick word or two.

Bush has remained so conspicuously incognito since leaving the White House on January 20th that you'd think there was a disaster going on somewhere that required his attention. For more than a week now, America has, well, let's face it, we haven't really wondered at all what happened to George Bush -- but that doesn't make it any less of a curiosity to see him finally surfacing at, of all things, a women's basketball game in Waco, Texas.

Needless to say, the applause he received when he and Laura stepped into the auditorium at Baylor on Wednesday was thunderous; I mean, hell, Robert Blake can still get a good table at Vitellos. But it's the very fact that a Christian university in Texas may constitute the only truly friendly crowd Bush can find these days that's so noteworthy. I wish I could claim to be better than this kind of Schadenfreude, but it's just entertaining as hell to think that Bush has already been relegated to the state fair tour circuit. Less than two weeks out of office and he's like a sex-offender with an electronic house arrest bracelet around his ankle. He leaves the house -- in this case, Middle-of-Nowhere, Texas -- he runs head first into the torch-wielding mob and the guys with the German Shepherds.

Or maybe this is a better analogy, considering who we're talking about: He's like a kid who's been sent to his room after almost setting the house on fire.

Watch this video and appreciate how uncharacteristically humbled and small he looks. It's startling to know that someone so feckless and ineffectual caused so much damage to our country and to the world.