A turning point by William Rivers Pitt

Newly-minted White House chief of staff Josh Bolten has signaled his desire to end the traditional publicly-televised daily press conferences with the White House press secretary. This will take a load off Tony Snow's mind, to be sure, and will save the rest of us from having to hear so many sad, disquieting, disturbing facts. Bill Maher, host of the HBO program "Real Time," threw a thought for George W. Bush against the wall during his closing monologue the other night. "You govern like Billy Joel drives," said Maher to Bush. "You've performed so poorly I'm surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a s****y president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes. On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon, and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side." Indeed.