Annus horribilis, continued

AND THEN THERE’S HIM

Surprisingly, perhaps, it was also a rough 12 months for George W. Bush, who was inaugurated in January amid plutocratic pomp. "I have political capital, and I intend to spend it," he said, flush with hubris.

Not so fast. If the Bushies’ efforts to immediately eviscerate social security right off the bat didn’t make people queasy, their cynical posturing and hollow pieties during the exhausting Schiavo saga did. And if Bush’s indifference to Cindy Sheehan’s interruption of his summer vacation was disheartening (if not surprising), the attacks on her from his surrogates — "crackpot," "media whore" — were stomach-turning. Pro-war or anti-, the voting public doesn’t much like hearing the mother of a fallen soldier referred to as a "tragedy slut."

The hits kept coming. Tom DeLay was indicted on conspiracy and money-laundering charges. Bill Frist was investigated for insider trading. The Harriet Miers nomination embarrassed all involved. Scooter Libby was indicted on perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges. And lo and behold: the president who just months before had gloated so vaingloriously about his people’s mandate was looking at an approval rating in the 30s.

But that’s cold comfort. Because Iraq still burns. Despite the cautious optimism prompted by all those purple fingers in last week’s apparently peaceful and successful elections, the insurgency is hardly, as Cheney is wont to say, in its "last throes." Bush has only now, finally, publicly copped to the number of Iraqis killed since the war began. "I would say 30,000 more or less," he proffered jauntily (in a tone, said the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, akin to that used by someone guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar).

The American death toll reached a grim milestone in 2005, too, topping 2000 in October. And it continues to climb. As it does, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi remains emboldened, and the IEDs keep detonating. Bush says now that he has a plan for victory (where was it two years ago?) but it seems, still, to be simply to stay the course in this war of attrition and to hope for the best.

All this while terrorism is still very much a going concern at home. What have we done about it? Almost nothing. The 9/11 Commission just gave the administration a report card marred with five Fs, 12 Ds, two incompletes, and a single A (for blocking terrorist financing). "If my children were to receive this report card, they would have to repeat a grade," roared commission member Tim Roemer. "Are we crazy?" thundered fellow member Jim Thompson. "Why aren’t our tax dollars being spent to protect our lives?" Because Iraq is the "central front in the war on terror." Obviously.

That must be why there were four explosions in London on July 7 that killed 56 people (and four more bombs in the city two weeks later that mercifully failed to detonate). They ripped the roofs off of double-decker buses in Tavistock Square, and tore through Kings Cross Tube tunnels, their dazed victims recording the murky carnage with cell-phone video cameras.

Here in the homeland, we’re at cross-purposes with ourselves. US air marshals are shooting civilians, not terrorists. Chemical plants remain protected by mere chain-link fences. And in this wondrous age of instantaneous communication, police and firefighters still don’t know how to talk to each other during a disaster.

So drink that Champagne when the ball drops on New Year’s Eve. And hope that when the hangover clears on January 1, 2006, things will be better. The best we can do is hope they won’t get much worse. But with these people in charge, don’t bet on it.

Mike Miliard can be reached at mmiliard[a]phx.com.