Remembering To Breathe

Talking about stopping to smell the roses, after three years of blogging against Bush it's worth enjoying this little pick-me-up from the New York Times:

There had already been months of bad news: the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the political embarrassment over port security. But not until last week's cluster of political crises did Washington's Republicans seem to exhibit real self-doubt. Suddenly, the swaggering Alphas who run this city were turned into self-effacing Betas.

"A staggering collection of misfortunes and failures," declared Harry C. McPherson of the week...

By week's end, the wheels seemed to have come off the Republicans' machine. The House leaders failed to get party conservatives and moderates to unite on a budget bill, so they threw up their hands and sent everyone home a day early for a two-week recess...

The Republican implosion was just as dramatic in the Senate. So many senators crammed into the press gallery on Thursday to take credit for a bipartisan pact on immigration legislation that the place looked like a New York subway car at rush hour. Then, Friday, the bill fell apart...

Finally, President Bush, at the other axis of Republican power, ran into his own troubles...

Like I said last week, Bush is finished. He will never regain the ground he has lost, and will now surely be remembered as the worst US President ever.

But there is still a lot of work to do.

Old bastards like me might remember that Bush Snr launched an illegal, provocative and ultimately meaningless bombing campaign against Saddam in the final "lame duck" days of his presidency. Bush is a lame duck with three years left to run, unless his administration can be successfully terminated beforehand.