Deference? First of all, your beloved W got into office because his brother's employee stopped the recount and then the Supreme Court, in a partisan split, certified her disenfranchisement of Florida voters. He did not deserve deference because he and his campaign sent thugs in chinos and Polo shirts to intimidate and bully election officials. Bush did a repeat performance in 2004 in Ohio. Bush ordered Alberto Gonzales to fire US Attorneys who refused to file unfounded charges of voter fraud against non-profits that registered minority voters (people who are less likely to vote Republican should not be allowed to vote, after all). No court had to intervene and crown Obama president. Obama got elected by bringing people into the voting process, not by trying to disenfranchise those who might vote against him. The legality of his election is not in doubt.

Bush has gotten more than deference. The entire nation has been taking it up the ass for him for 8 years. He and his goons have gotten away with subverting and shitting on our civil liberties, international law, ruined our image abroad, sold us to China, violated trust of the voting public, and all in the name of oil and money for their cronies. Bush took the teeth out of Scooter Libby's sentencing because HE thought that he knew better than the jury and the sentencing trial judge. Bush and his goons dummied up intelligence so that the Congress would give him the power to engage in an act of aggression against another nation. Congress has continued to fund the war in Iraq despite their being elected in 2006 to end it. Congress has renewed the Patriot Act at Bush's behest. The only way we could show Bush more "deference" is to allow him to skate on war crimes charges.

Bush does not deserve the respect of US citizens. He manipulated 9/11 and the fear of the nation to take over Iraq so that he might recreate the Middle East in his image (and to take control of Iraq's oil and secure no bid contracts for friends). He stifled and bullied the press so that they would not question his phony intelligence reports. He spies on us with warrantless wiretaps. He has rewritten the rules so that torture is legal. Not only does that make us look bad as a nation, but it exposes our soldiers to the same type of treatment should they be captured. George Bush holds America, her citizens, her traditions, ideals, laws, and values in contempt. He took a sledgehammer to our nation and justified it by claiming patriotism. Samuel Johnson must have been thinking ahead to your sainted "W" when he said that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." I cannot wait until Bush leaves, not for Crawford, but for the Hague so that he can face justice. At least he would get a fair trial, which is more than he would give anyone he wants to call a terrorist.

The past two election cycles have been a repudiation of George Bush and his administration. Republicans lost seats in Congress because of him. He was nowhere to be found on the campaign trail because the candidates know that voters wanted nothing to do with anyone who supported him. John McCain went out of his way to distance himself from Bush. Polls showed that the majority of voters viewed a McCain administration as a third term Bush administration. Congressional candidates could not get the stench of Bush off of them either. Dick Cheney did not make many appearances either. If the Republicans did not want his ass around and treated him like a leper, why on earth should Democrats show him any deference?