Joe Galloway: Endgame of a tortured presidency

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_5559698

Joe Galloway: Endgame of a tortured presidency
By Joe Galloway

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The wheels began falling off the Republican wagon with the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, which put one GOP congressman and a high-ranking Interior Department political appointee behind bars.
Then came the bribery case of Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham and his resignation and imprisonment. One of the fired prosecutors was pursuing an indictment of a high-ranking Central Intelligence Agency official in that case.
Then there was the trial of Scooter Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, and his conviction on perjury charges arising from sworn testimony before a grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame CIA leak case. Libby is appealing his conviction and praying for a presidential pardon.
All of this is a token of much more still to come, as President Bush and his closest aides endure death by a thousand cuts in their final 21 months in power.
For six long years, the Republicans had it all their way, with control of the White House and both houses of Congress. There was no oversight to speak of; and no one asking pesky questions about the routine incompetence and breath-taking mismanagement of everything from the war in Iraq to the rebuilding of New Orleans.
Now, with the Democrats in control of Congress and the president's approval ratings down around his shoe tops, the endgame of a tormented presidency has begun.
George Bush can draw lines in the sand, make imperious declarations of defiance and issue orders to Congress, but he had better be buying Band-Aids by the carload.

has some of those left over band aids they mocked the purple heart veterans with.