another reason we should all be eternally grateful to FDR...wasn't it he who moved up the inauguration from is original time in March to January?

can you imagine having to wait until f**king SPRING for Bush to be gone?!?

Hey look, that pig is flying!

I have to vote no. i don't like the idea of messing with the system because of temporary infatuations with one person. Bush has already set more lousy precedents and destroyed so many "traditions" I wouldn't want him to set one more exception.

The long time interval between the election and the inauguration is archaic and should no longer be needed. I guess two hundred years ago the members of the Electoral college had to ride their horses across the country to assemble and vote in the new president, and then the new president himself had to ride his horse to the capital, which all took time, but this is surely a tradition that could be dropped in this modern age. In the UK I think the new Prime Minister takes office pretty much the *day* after the election. Obviously this change would need a Constitutional Amendment, but why would anyone object to shortening the lame-duck period in which nothing productive gets done?

Of course, had Pelosi not taken impeachment off the table, maybe we wouldn't have to rely on the nonexistent altruism of George the Terrible.

It's a funny idea but ... nah. One of the things I like about Obama is that he always plays by the rules, and even manages to make the rules work in his favor. Though it's no fun to wait, making a smooth transition in power is best for everyone.

Though they should probably immediately remove the shredders from every federal office, especially Cheney's office.

I didn't think Collins was serious. She's written some bizarre columns lately.

If this were to be seriously considered (and I'm with Bob M above and Katherine "There'll be pork in the treetops by morning" Hepburn), then the steps are:

1. Dick the dick resigns,

2. Shrub nominates Barack Obama to replace him as Vice President,

3. Senate confirms Obama in a lame duck session (already scheduled),

4. Shrub resigns.

Na Ga Happen, but a lovely dream.

Won't work. Bush and Cheney need at least until the end of January to shred all the files and change all the hard drives to eliminate the evidence.

The New York Times' Gail Collins has a good idea in her column this morning: maybe Bush could do us a favor and just wrap things up now.

Talk about wasting column space, might as well have asked for Martians to come down and bail out Citigroup. Maybe there's another columnist in the wings who won't waste the opportunity.

The long time interval between the election and the inauguration is archaic and should no longer be needed.

You can argue the opposite, where the size and scope of our government demands the prep time to get stuff in order prior to a turnover.

That's ridiculous! It has to be

Cheney resigns
Obama is appointed VP
Bush resigns

Seriously, though, I agree that it's too much like one of those GOP ideas that's technically legal but against all tradition.

Maybe Congress could just declare a National Emergency! Looks like we have one.

I wish, I wish, I wish!!

Wonder why it was so easy to impeach Clinton and impossible with Bush/Cheney?

I totally agree with Bill Smugs' comment above. This lame-duck period has become really dangerous and there is little justification for it.

Also, why is there a lame-duck Congress? That makes no sense at all.

W could ask Dick to resign, appoint Obama as VP, have congress confirm it then resign himself.

Would take the promise/threat of granting or removing a super pardon to him, but it could work ...

Not going to happen.

Bush needs time to gut the Endangered Species Act, rob what's left of the crumbs in the treasury, pardon Scooter and the boys, and cut some brush on the ranch. And Osama needs time to pull another 9/11.

Impeach the SOB already.

Although the transition period is surely a useful thing, a countervailing advantage of having the new president inaugurated as soon as he's elected is that it would give the outgoing administration so much less time to screw things up. I'm not just talking about the current administration here either. Having the inauguration sooner means less time for shredding and other cover-up tactics; less time to issue last-minute pardons, whether they are for the people who did the president's dirty work or just for big campaign contributors; and less time for agencies to adopt last-minute regulations that seek to entrench the outgoing administration's policies after the voters have repudiated them.

This is a great idea! Instead of giving Obama time to build a solid, functioning team, let's just skip all that and elevate him to the status of American Seer! Because obviously all he needs to do to be a great president is sit on a fucking rug and spout wisdom from his navel!

WE'RE SO LUCKY TO HAVE THE SON OF GOD AS OUR NEXT PRESIDENT!!!!

This would also continue the wonderfully trajectory of raising expectations for Obama to stratospheric heights! Will he cure Aids in the first 100 days, or just his first term? And what about bringing people back from the dead? Will he have to push that through Congress, or can he just sign an executive order?

WE'RE SO LUCKY TO HAVE AN INFALLIBLE HUMAN BEING AS OUR NEXT PRESIDENT!!!!

And while we're at it, what's all this talk about a cabinet, and appointments and such? Why are people assuming Barack Obama can't do all these jobs himself? Is this some sort of rap against him because he's black? Why do so many people hate Barack Obama when he's obviuosly here to save us all from ourselves?

WE'RE SO LUCKY TO BE BLESSED WITH A LEFT-WING SAVIOR WHO CAN AND WILL DO NO WRONG!!!!!

As much as I'd like Bush out, I vote no. Let Obama get his ducks in a row so he can hit the ground running. He needs this time to get the chess board set with all his pieces. Although he's shown how quickly he can build a team (likely because he was preparing in advance of Nov.4) he has to be allowed this transition.
Speaking of moving quickly, can anyone imagine what a McCain/Palin tranistion would have looked like at this stage of the game? Frightening.

Good news everyone! You all get to go on a trip to Nepal to scare Mt. Everest!

The bad news is that you have to be ready to go in the next twenty minutes. So do some pushups, call you family, and pack anything you might need to walk up a 29,000 foot hill, the last mile or so of which is without breathable oxygen for most of you.

The good news -- and this is VERY good news -- is that president-elect Barack Obama will be in charge of the climb! Yes, he's never done anything like this before, but if 60 million people voted for him, what could go wrong? He's young, fit, charismatic and has been a United States Senator for almost a full term, so this is clearly the kind of thing he's familiar with.

Still, you're going to be doing the bulk of the actual work, and carrying a lot of the gear, and trying not to make Mr. Obama look like an idiot -- or worse -- so please use your twenty minutes wisely. We don't want to let the man down.

And The Phantom is so lucky to have a Caps Lock key.

Reply to Bill Smugs,

But what day should the President have been inaugurated after the 2000 election? What happens if the election isn't over?

If there were a way for the existing President to stay until the election is finally decided, would you trust George W. Bush with the power to delay his departure had the election been closer?

I want a fixed final get-out day for the incumbent, one that cannot be fiddled with, but it has to be after the election is decided.

Bush and Cheney can stay till Jan 20. Just remove and replace everyone below them starting now.
Obama should be allowed to replace the entire cabinet with his nominees. In particular, since Paulson said he is not going to use the money congress allocated but save it for the next administration, he should go first.

As has been pointed out by various posters, this is so not going to happen for a ton of reasons. Georgie isn't exactly the kind of self-aware guy who'd acknowledge his own uselessness by stepping down early, and Cheney still has a lot of dark and dastardly things he wants to inflict on the US before he stops being the acting-President.

That said, the larger point about reducing (or removing entirely) the lame-duck period is a good one. Having a ten week hiatus between the election of a new Administration and the day they take office leaves your country without effective leadership for far too long, and, in drastic circumstances - like the one you're in today - itactively encourages the Administration on its way out to waste time on enacting the crazy fringe excesses they never dared go for while the possibility of them still having jobs on Jan 20th remained, instead of trying to fix the mistakes they've already made. Since, y'know, that's someone else's problem now.

Plus, having the choice of Administration appointments become part of the election campaign would give the electorate a much better idea of what they were voting for or against. After all, choosing the people who'll be carrying out their policy orders is maybe the most important and reveaing thing job a President does. Why shouldn't they do it before rather than after they ask the nation to vote for them?

Since this process would require that the incumbent resign voluntarily, and the incumbent is Bush who does not believe that government should do anything anyway, he is getting what his gut tells him is the correct decision as long as he sits in office and does nothing.

Bush's gut is more important that what others think is imperative for the nation. Just ask him.

Gail Collins does present an interesting question. Has Bush definitively surpassed James Buchanan for the "honor" of worst American President ever? It's sort of like playing low-ball poker. Who holds the lowest hand instead of the highest.

I think his only other competitor for that "honor" might be Andrew Johnson, and I don't think there is any doubt that Bush is worse than Andrew Johnson.

Great idea but it ain't gonna happen. What everyone seems to have forgotten is that Bush, in his own mind, is one of our greatest presidents ever who will be vindicated after we're all dead and that the longer he stays in office, the longer he staves off the misguided incompetency of an Obama administration.

Never underestimate the ability of a politician to believe in his own BS, especially an ignorant fat head like Bush.

Stop huffing, you guys. Ms. Collins' column was an exercise in wishful, fun and games, thinking, nothing more. It was no more serious than most of the columns by Kristol, Krauthammer, Will, Brody and the rest of that crew. The difference is that hers is supposed to be light-hearted, like a fun novel, and theirs are supposed to be taken seriously, like an autopsy report. In neither case is there any connection with reality.

Although I love the idea, it would be a drastic departure from "no-drama" Obama. Besides, anyone who thinks they can convince Dick "Unitary Executive" Cheney to voluntarily "give away" his power is a fool.

Hell, why stop there? Let's just trash the constitution while we're at it!

I'm neither fan of Bush nor morons!

Very nice, along with the Saturday "This Week in God" column, to have a weekend joke column too. After nearly a full quarter-month of worry, this really takes the edge off. I hope it's a regular feature. Too bad Kristol only writes on Monday, in the Times, anyway.

If Bush want's to leave anything positive to his legacy, this is his last shot.

Let's just trash the constitution while we're at it!

You mean by, say, allowing the Supreme Court to pick the President instead of the voters? (Not to mention utterly shredding the Bill of Rights.) That ship has sailed.

This is of course an exercise in silly fantasy - the outgoing administration will want every day from now to Jan. 20 to burrow in their Regent University alumni, weaken all the regulations they can think of, and lay landmines for their successors. They'll also pry off the "O" keys on the White House keyboards.

Normally, this lame-duck period for the President wouldn't be an issue; most presidents aren't criminally negligent and don't set the country up to be in complete meltdown at the worst possible moment. If the House and Senate had not reneged on their constitutional duty to remove a criminal executive, we wouldn't be here, of course. (Thanks Nancy and Harry!) For the future, not allowing criminals to remain in office would probably work better than forcing a rushed transition.

Another alternative ... Pelosi steps aside as Speaker and the House votes/names Obama as Speaker.

Of course, the Pony Plan Obama ascension would still be hampered by a lame duck 50-50 Senate until January...

Big changes like this can go awry so many ways. Just look at what we got without ever imagining how hosed we'd be at the end of 8 years.

How 'bout, stick Bushkie on Air Force One, send him to some country that will give permission to land (should be a couple left) and once there, yank the gas card. He has all he needs on-board to see out a lame duck session.

Advantage; don't need this old technology anyway so save big time on costs and pollution and future international negotiations can be handled by secure teleconference 24/7. Certainly way more productive without the photo-ops and hand squeezing. This might also force the coach potatoes to pay attention to _their_ govamint instead of faux news on world developments.

I'd prefer that Bush and Cheney admit to their war crimes first, then resign.

Pelosi as even temporary president would be nice...but Hillary would insist she's entitled to it first.

I just love how Clinton bashing gets inserted into everything. A verb, a noun and....

As desperately as I want Obama in the White House, it isn't a good precedent. And the truth is that the Senate could do a great deal more than it is doing now if it had effective leadership.

The Phantom is needing a little Jim Bowie justice!

Jim Bowie:

Blow it out your ass.

Collins' original post is stupid, but beyond that it's actually counter-productive. Belittling the worst President in the world is not going to solve any problems, but it might -- incredibly -- cause people to feel sorry for a war criminal. As might the disrespect shown to Bush by other world leaders. While Bush himself is certainly due an ass kicking, the idea of embarrassing any President, either domestically or abroad, does not sit well with a lot of Americans.

Worse, the idea that we need to subvert a process that has stood us in good stead for decades simply because of the historical moment is exactly the same rationale that Bush used to do so much damage. Yet to the nuts on the left, it's all good because they're ethical while Bush is evil.

I really expect more from Steve than to validate this kind of gloating and stupidity, but he's apparently as punch drunk from Obama's victory as the average diarist at DKos. Which is, again, considerably disappointing given the very calm and even way he blogged the Bush years.

So yeah, laugh it up everybody. Your solutions are Bushian, your attitude mirrors Limbaugh and your rationales could have been penned by Hannity.

And in the seeds of all this is the birth of a kernel of mistrust and resentment in the moderate/independent voters that Obama will need in four years. But you can't see that, because in your head you think he was elected by a center-left nation that's really always wanted to admit that it's liberal.

Epic fail.

This was a waste of blog space.
Not funny enough to be humor.
Not serious enough to be a thought exercise.

I've been reading Collins for years. She's very serious.

Can't we start a movement or something? How about Keith and Rachel kick-starting it and let's see who in the 'librul' media runs with it.

Waiting 2 more months for something to happen is complete nonsense.

Maybe if the Dow collapses to 4000, then the Repubs might get on board.

The best way to get Bush and Cheney out of the White House? I prefer a torch-and-pitchfork march down Pennsylvania Avenue, myself. With plenty of rope. It won't be easy to hogtie that fat-ass Cheney.

Epic fail.
Posted by: The Phantom

It's a pity you're too ignorant to recognize tongue-in-cheek humor when you read it. No one with a functioning brain could read Collins' column and believe she's at all serious.

Or maybe you just enjoy being a fatuous ass for all to see.

What this thread shows more than anything else is how lame all the right wing attempts at anti-Obama humor have become. I supported and voted for Obama for several reasons, but not because I expect him to be superman or the second coming (or, as I would think of it, the first). I supported Obama because I think it would be useful actually to have a president on occasion (cf: pre and post-Katrina periods) and it would be preferable to have adult supervision over the executive branch. That doesn't require either superman or supernatural intercession. I guess the standard winger stuff about Obama as messiah is meant to make fun of pro-Obama enthusiasm, but it is to miss the point that this enthusiasm was grounded in reality. If you missed that reality, you are in deep denial.

As for the rest of the thread including the idea of Obama starting early, I suspect that this idea picked up a little steam due to it being used by Leno and Letterman in their opening monologues -- humor, but of the grim, reality based kind. I would suspect that Obama and staff have their hands full and will need every hour between now and noon, January 20.

Having no interregnum is definitely appealing, but would require getting rid of the Electoral College too, which is more than appealing. It is essential.

The Deserter-in-Chief - he's been AWOL as president for eight years - could't get Cheney to resign in any case, since he is effectively in charge. Clueless George would never resign since that would be an admission of error, and he probably still thinks history will vindicate him. Book publishers have told him to take his time with memoirs - certainly find someone who can write the language first - and world leaders treat him as being the intellectually impotent moron he so clearly is.

There is so much damage left to do and so little time to declare war on Iran. I'm afraid the countdown clocks aren't going to be reset, and the economy will probably be in a very deep tank by January 20.

I don't understand why anyone would think that the ideas presented by Collins in her column are illegal or dangerous to the Constitution.
The procedures for the replacement of the President and Vice-president are in the Constitution, as amended. While those procedures were designed for the "emergency" of nuclear war or some other major catastrophe, there is no reason not to consider their use in the present emergency. I don't think the emergency is bad enough to expend the necessary energy required to get GWB and Darth Cheyney to actually think about the good of the country first for once and resign to let Mr. Obama start his administration early.
Thought: If the emergency WERE bad enough to even consider letting Mr. Obama in early, then GWB and friends would fighting furiously to stay on, using the "good of the Nation" as an argument.

Ideally, Bush and Cheney would also waive their Secret Service protection after resigning. This would save money and allow citizens to spit on them at will.

I'm summed up the same early Bush/Cheney retirement sentiment in my latest limerick:

Dear Bush, Doesn’t Your Brush Need Clearing?
By Madeleine Begun Kane

Dear Dubya, you’re only success
Is at failure. Leave early. Egress!
We have found your replacement,
So end the debasement.
Let Obama start fixing your mess.

I'm a fan of Gail Collins. This was tongue-in-cheek, there really is no other reading. If you need a "tell", it's in the last para but one:

Cutting it short and leaping into governing would turn [the Obama transition team's] measured march toward power into a mad scramble. A lot of their Cabinet picks are still working on those 62-page questionnaires.

I refuse to be knowingly trumped by a viagra advertisement, so I'll add this response to The Phantom:

Belittling the worst President in the world is not going to solve any problems, but it might -- incredibly -- cause people to feel sorry for a war criminal. As might the disrespect shown to Bush by other world leaders. While Bush himself is certainly due an ass kicking, the idea of embarrassing any President, either domestically or abroad, does not sit well with a lot of Americans.

In fact, I'll seize my monopoly of this nearly forgotten space to make a prediction. Within two years of the now President Bush's retirement from office, there will be a confirmed report in a major news outlet of his return to alcoholism, and at some later point in time his life will be cut short by excessive drinking.

I might add that if the prediction in the above paragraph turns out to be correct, it will give me immense pleasure to travel to the place of his burial and piss on his grave.

Now that is a proper belittling; and I might point out that you won't be finding anything of the kind in the writings of Gail Collins. Apart from her native civility, her instant column shows the highest level of respect she can muster.

This was my idea too. Never in our history has it been more important to have a discredited president resign. The election is settled--the crisis is now. Bush has no credibility at all, and every day he dithers around being incompetent is literally costing us lives and livelihoods. This isn't partisan. He needs to leave. Soonest. His presidency is a complete fiasco and worldwide failure. I wish a group of Republicans would come up and let him know it is just over. That is his only dignified option.