CLEAN UP DUTY

Former President George W. Bush, in a rare public appearance, spoke in Chicago yesterday before the Commercial Finance Association. He offered that his biggest accomplishment was that "I kept the country safe" ignoring the fact that arrogance and incompetence may well have facilitated the catastrophic 911 attacks. His biggest disappointment - not privatizing social security, forgetting that had he succeeded he would have caused an economic catastrophe for the folks relying on that money as their old age safety net when the market imploded in 2007-8.

Bush the humorist provided a word picture of life after the Presidency: when walking Presidential dog Barney, he's now the guy with his hand in a plastic bag, not a Presidential gofer tagging along. What Bush doesn't yet get is that the 310 million of us cleaning up after his disastrous eight years haven't found a plastic bag large enough to pick up all the waste he left behind.

Also published in the Glen Ellyn News, October 27, 2010