Can George Bush Withstand the Light of Day?

Like it or not, he is the leader of the free world. Sure his status is badly tarnished and stained, it even smells bad, but George Walker Bush is still Commander-in-Chief of the world's most powerful nation. Yes, he's a lame duck and he's lost control of Congress but a lot of the decisions he still has power to make will directly impact on Canada and other Western nations.

We have good reason to worry about George Bush's health. Recent photographs make him look haggard and wan as though he's aged 10-years over the last two. The centerpiece of his presidency, his very legacy is the Iraq War and the way it's going he might be better off if his legacy was syphillis. The American people have rejected this war so Bush's response is to give them more of the same, adding upwards of 30,000 more troops in yet another lurch for victory.

We've seen how inept Bush was while his Republicans ruled the country so how much worse will he get now that the Dems are going to make him answer for his blunders? George Bush is going to spend the last two years of his presidency watching the events of the first six years picked to pieces, lie by lie.

Senate Democrats are planning to commence 11-hearings in the next few weeks - on Iraq alone. Now that they've got subpoena power, they'll be able to demand answers to all the questions that had to go unasked while Republicans ruled Congress.

Then there's Congressman Henry Waxman. This funny-looking little man has spent the past years peppering the White House and Bush cabinet member with letters asking some very pointed, perhaps inconvenient, questions that have too often gone unanswered. Waxman has done his homework, he knows where the bodies are buried.

Now, as Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Waxman is going to start with investigations into federal contracts awarded in Iraq and following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. He'll be tilling some very rich soil that the Republicans kept safely out of bounds for so many years.

George Bush is in bad shape at the moment and its going to get worse. Like Nixon, he may find himself so beset at home that he becomes incapacitated and unable to cope with major crises abroad when we just might need him most.