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Let me say this slowly.  It's something I've never said before. 

Bush is unfit for office.  He's not my president.

Now, I've called him nuts, crazy, dangerous, said he should be censured over warrantless wiretapping, and so on.  I've said he's paranoid and craven and callow and cowardly.  I've said his 2000 election was undemocratic and probably illegitimate, in some fashion.  Selected, then elected.  And even with all that, I still mentally sustained a degree of deference to him, in some corner of my mind, as President of the United States. 

I've never called for impeachment and I'm still not.  I'm not raving or slamming my fingers down on my keyboard. I'm feeling very calm.  I'm not trying to be funny, snarky, witty or anything else.  I'm just grappling with the incredible hubris. . . words fail.  "Irresponsibility" is too thin.  What's the word?  How does one characterize the absolute contempt this man has for human life, for the expressed will of the American people, who have completely repudiated his failed occupation of Iraq, now that he's indulging his fantasies of an escalation?

I think a lot of people in the mythical middle who thought he was basically a good guy who's been stubborn and wrong are coming to the realization that he's dangerous, almost to an inhuman degree.  He's pissed all over the Baker-Hamilton charade which, for all its flaws, still helped cement the notion in the popular mind that to continue is to fail.  And his response is to go in exactly the opposite direction all the world, including the American public, wants him to go? I knew he would do it; I'm not saying I was surprised.  But the blunt reality of it staggers.

I know we all know this stuff, and I can't account for why this is hitting me the way it's hitting me now, for as long as I've been hammering at this worst president ever.  But it is.

When Bill Clinton took office, there were right wingers who, from day one, never conferred to him in their minds any shred of legitimacy, and they set about trying to take him down.  They almost succeeded.  They said, right after his election, "He's not my president," words we really hadn't heard said with such conviction among wide portions of the population since Lincoln was elected in 1860.  But even after Bush was installed by the Supreme Court, Democrats mostly put it behind them.  And after 9/11, the whole country rallied to Bush's side.

Now I'm making that statement:  Bush is not my president.  I'm done.  Enough.  Call it Bush derangement syndrome all you want, wingnuts, your guy is a criminal failure whose intransigent unwillingness to admit he's been wrong has killed thousands of people, and now he wants to kill thousands more. 

I'm not arguing for impeachment, not because I don't think he's been criminal, or even because he doesn't deserve it.  I believe he does.  But I want the Democrats during these next two years to begin to change things, pass some good legislation.  They can't pursue impeachment and do all that stuff at once.  Our home, our world, is on fire.  Put out the fire first.  We don't have time to impeach this horrible man.  

I do want vigorous investigations, and I'm a real Waxman kind of guy.  Leahy, Dorgan, Conyers, the whole gang.  More, more, more.  Why?  Because we need to educate the public and find out just how much damage has been done to the Constitution so we can set about putting things right again.  Here's a test for you history buffs:  of all the grievances in the Declaration of Independence, how many has Bush basically perpetrated through his administration?  I don't have an answer, but if anyone wants to send me a study of some kind, a real one, just email me.  I'll make it public and give you credit. 

I'm not happy saying that the president of the United States is illegitimate, based on his performance and contempt for the will of the governed and the Constitution he swore to uphold.  It gives me no pleasure.  But I think this is a notion we all need to comprehend:  he's unfit to be president.  If you agree with me, say it out loud:  he's not my president.

Everything he stands for is unAmerican.  It just so happens that the modern Republican Party stands right with him.  He's their product.  The party of the South has done it again:  it's tried to destroy America. 

Americans can't let that happen.  Preventing that from happening, and turning it all around, begins by coming to grips with some basic, unwelcome, disturbing facts.  This is not a liberal conclusion, or a partisan one.  It's an American one.

Not My President.