I agree with you totally about Bush. He's stupid, but he's also cruel. I still can't believe the past eight years.

Give the Lutherans a shot. But not Missouri Synod.

I felt from Day 1 that W was essentially irrelevant to his own presidency. This does not take him off the hook. I vacillate on trying to figure out just how stupid he might or might not be. With limited intelligence, no curiously, and grotesque intellectual laziness, moronic patsy is a very real possibility. But I hold him fully responsible for all the misdeeds of his administration.

I can't find a decent church to attend. The ones I've had the heart to visit recently have been taken over by Dobsonesque, homophobic, racial, hypocritical, brainless automatons, who think it's okay to torture "bad" people because, well…they're "bad". It's mind-boggling.

I also have a really hard time believing Bush was the moronic patsy so many believe he was. I think he's stupid as a friggin' rock, but I don't think he was clueless. I think he knew way more about what he was foisting upon the world than his apologists want to admit. Yes, he was a tool, but he wasn't a blameless one. Not by a long shot.

"it won’t last if the “elite” believe themselves above the love"

should be law not love. I'm sure the "elite" love, even if it is just themselves. :)

Rumor has it Bush41 helped Bush43 bring in Gates in as Sec. of Def. Makes you wonder who would have been appointed if Bush43 didn't have an ex-president as a father.

A very believable reason why Bush43 didn't ask for Rumsfeld's resignation for Abu Ghraib is because what went on there was an official policy of abuse/torture in support of our information gathering activities. I'm sure it was easily argued it was a few bad apples who went to far and thus not Rumsfeld's fault. Apparently Rumsfeld was very good at shifting the blame onto others if you read the article that goes with the photos.

@willf:

Until we get a president who will actually "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" we actually are pretty screwed. Sure Obama may give everyone affordable healthcare and regulate the banks so they don't crater our economy again, but if he doesn't bring back "the rule of law" as being our most important guiding principal them we really aren't any better off.

It puzzles me greatly how a someone who taught Constitutional Law seems to pay only lip service to the Constitution. It was one of the reasons I was hopeful he was actually presidential material and not your average self serving politician, but I think his ardent supports have it right and he's trying to ignore his duties and make history. While this is great for him and his supporters is bad for the health of our democracy as it won't last if the "elite" believe themselves above the love and have it proven to them over and over again by Presidents failing to do the unpleasant and holding powerful people accountable.

Rummy allowing it to be used to keep aWol going with the program is just the Neo-Con end justifies the means bullshit!!

But make rotten decisions for long enough and they'll call you "experienced". Rumsfeld is only one example of many. Bush, the archetypical tool, abused the highest power in the land, and must be held to the highest degree of responsibility. It's just shocking that we need to point out that ignorance of the law is no excuse when we are talking about a President of the United States.

Thanks, Aslan.