Out, damned spot! out, I say!

--Macbeth (V, i, 38).

The Bush administration is over. Sure they still have until 11:59 AM January 20, 2009 to do damage, but they have been tremendously marginalized. When Clinton lost the Democratic Congress in 1994, he still had two years and a re-election to recover. Bush has no such luxury...nor does Cheney, who is not running for president (because he already was co-president) in 2008.

The new Democratic Congress, particularly Chairman Waxman, is digging up more damaging information on the Administration by the minute, making the death a slow and painful one. My question as become, will anyone who worked for this administration come out unscathed?

Nixon's team faired very poorly, although some had rebirths--Pat Buchanan and David Gergen.

But who on Bush's team will have any legitimacy left in 2009? Not the war cabinet (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice), not his chiefs of staff, not his spokespersons, not his not his Pentagon team (although Doug Feith managed to score a teaching job at Georgetown), not his counsel's office, not his justice department, ...

Some will retire to AEI, like Lynne Cheney, but that doesn't mean they will be listened to. A rare few will be able to escape this mark, this blemish on their career. Soon, they too will be quoting (or paraphrasing) that line from Shakesphere.