Bush's Final Finger to the World

Rupert Cornwall on more reasons to hate Bush as he paves the way for his legacy while the spectre of torture hangs over his head:

For months now, Bush has been issuing new regulations and notices to tie the hands of the Obama administration. The practice is not new: one of the worst previous offenders was none other than the deeply virtuous Jimmy Carter. But this Bush has indulged it far more than either his father or Bill Clinton. At the last count he has signed more than 100 such orders – in effect, new laws that don't need to be approved by Congress – and more are likely during his last fortnight in office. And if you're a liberal or an environmentalist, or just a run-of-the-mill Democrat, you'll hate them.

And:

In the meantime, his senior aides are already rewriting history. You thought Dick Cheney secretly ran US foreign policy, at least in Bush's first term? "Hooey," Stephen Hadley, the meek and mild National Security Adviser, told The Washington Post last week. You thought the 43rd President was an incurious and arrogant ideologue who would not listen to anyone who disagreed with him? Wrong again. "The President is very good about hearing and wanting contrary advice," chimed in Josh Bolten, the White House chief of staff. Everyone who deals with Bush "appreciates what a good leader he is, how smart he is and especially, how humane he is". And, Bolten might have added, maybe what a voracious reader he is.

And:

Finally, there are the pardons. In fact, Bush has been surprisingly stingy in exercising this presidential prerogative. Of 8,000 applications for pardons, he had granted just 191 as of Christmas, fewer than either Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton, who infamously pardoned the indicted financier (and generous Democratic party donor) Marc Rich in the final hours of his presidency. Bush has also commuted eight other sentences, most notably the jail term handed in 2007 to Lewis Libby, Cheney's one-time chief of staff, for perjury. There were expectations Libby might be granted a full pardon, but, thus far at least, not so. Among those who have requested pardons are Michael Milken, Wall Street's former junk bond king, the bribe-taking former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the disgraced Olympic champion Marion Jones, and of course our old friend Lord Black of Crossharbour.

It's all infuriating reading.