By Scott Wright

Have you taken the time to contemplate the reality that, but for the current Democratic majority in Congress, the administration of George W. Bush would have completely gotten away (in the short term, at least) with being one of the worst in history? Whether or not you're a Democrat, that's the truth and you ought to be thankful for the cleansing light of day that is being shined on that Nixonian congregation. In fact, if you're a Republican, you ought to be ashamed. This guy has been the worst thing to happen to your party since, well ... his dad.

What's going on in the nation's capital these days really isn't even about political parties, anymore. Thanks in large part to the investigations Democrats are presently pursuing, we're slowly beginning to realize that the level of corruption and incompetence the Bush administration has achieved in six years is unequaled and possibly even dangerous to the future of the country.

There are recent revelations relating just a few of the underhanded deals that we would've never heard of if the rubber-stamp Republicans -- who hid their heads in the sand for six years while George W. Bush ran roughshod over the United States Constitution -- still controlled the committees charged with oversight of the executive branch. Many more questionable policies and practices are sure to come to light in the 18 months that remain for this loathsome excuse for a commander-in-chief.

Just in the last few weeks, we've learned that the president's secret wiretap program continues despite its illegality. We've also discovered that Bush administration officials fired United States attorneys so they could award GOP cronies and politicize the Justice Department.

On Tuesday, former Bush Surgeon General Richard Carmona testified to Congress that he was repeatedly marginalized by Bush flunkies who wanted scientific facts that didn't mesh with GOP talking points “watered down” or flat-out removed from his speeches. Dr. Carmona was also ordered to “mention President Bush three times of every page of his speeches.” While not illegal, the Bush administration's suppression of important aspects of public health over partisan political considerations is downright despicable.

Also last week, Americans learned that Bush's No. 1 stooge, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, received at least a half-dozen reports that the FBI has abused the civil liberties of Americans while enforcing the Patriot Act, even though he told Congress the exact opposite in sworn testimony a few weeks earlier.

The White House -- as arrogant as ever -- recently released a statement bemoaning the “hundreds” of investigations that have been launched by Democratic-controlled House and Senate committees since February. The Democrats are playing politics to an extent, but at least their partisan actions have had the parallel result of revealing some of the more outrageous improprieties of a presidential administration run amok. And the eye-opening significance of the White House's whining is that there's probably plenty more crookedness where that came from.

I've recounted previously in this space the myriad failures of George W. Bush, so I won't list them again here. Suffice it to say that when he finally leaves office, Bush will have secured himself a pitiful place in American history textbooks for as long as the Republic remains intact. (Thankfully for the prospects of the latter, the former will happen in less than two years.) If textbook publishers are wise they'll go ahead and ink in the moustache and devil's horns on President Bush's likeness, just to save millions of 10th graders the trouble.

Armed with the knowledge of presidential misdeeds that Republicans in Congress would have continued to keep hidden for the entirety of his tenure -- and possibly for decades afterwards, if only they had held their majority -- our children and grandchildren will certainly speak the name George W. Bush in the same sentence as Richard Nixon, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding and our nation's other top-notch presidential crap-outs. Bush 43 will be the butt of jokes for generations because of a string of policy failures, both foreign and domestic, the likes of which this country has never seen before. His name will become synonymous with screwing up and dumbing down.

In fact, let's go ahead and get that right started now. Next time you find yourself on the golf course and your partner slices his tee shot into an adjacent county, laugh and exclaim, “Wow! You really George W. Bushed that sucker!” Also, use the new phrase to poke fun next time you hear a complex scenario or series of events described in ridiculously simplistic terms. For example, if someone likens Werner Von Braun's Saturn V moon rocket to a gigantic tube of toothpaste that was used to “squirt” astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins to the moon, you might later recount to your friends that you heard the “George W. Bush version” of the Apollo 11 mission.

As much as I'd love to see it happen, it's pointless to begin impeachment proceedings against the president. Because of that, every American should be thankful for the efforts of those in Congress who are working to right our foundering ship of state by other means. By their actions, those Democratic senators and representatives are performing the very oversight duties that the Founding Fathers had in mind when they created three separate but equal branches of government 220 years ago. It's worth mentioning, too, that this oversight duty went unperformed -- was out-and-out ignored! -- for the first six years of the Bush presidency, while the Republican Party controlled Congress.

With the likes of George W. Bush inhabiting the Oval Office, I daresay we all owe Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and the rest of the men who established this great country our undying gratitude for having the foresight to make sure someone was charged with keeping a watchful eye on the commander-in-chief. Thankfully, they saw the likes of George W. Bush coming from a long way off, even though a majority of the voters in this country, on two recent occasions, did not.