The Bush administration’s deep problems don’t quite feel like a good reason to celebrate. Lies and incompetence have caught up with Bush, whose presidential approval rating hovers around Watergate-Nixonian levels, while Dick Cheney’s even less popular, after his chief of staff’s indictment.

“I divide time now between BSI–Before Scooter’s Indictment–and ASI–After Scooter’s Indictment,” says Working Life blogger Jonaathan Tasini. First of all, I’m not sure if we’re witnessing the crucifixion or the martyrdom of Bush-Cheney’s henchmen. If Vice President Heart Attack chooses this time to “take one for the team” and resign for “health reasons,” does it really hurt the Republicans, or does it simply give Bush an opportunity to appoint an heir-apparent VP who could be spared a bruising 2008 primary, and who could tap into conservative fury over the “railroading” of such conservative superstars as Cheney and Rove.

And secondly, can the Democrats – our “opposition party” by default in Washington – actually capitalize on Bush-Cheney’s crimes? Do they have the guts to prosecute Cheney even after he resigns, forcing Bush to pull a Gerald Ford and issue an unpopular pardon? Hell, do they have the guts to vote for the resolution House Republicans are threatening to introduce, calling for a speedy withdrawal from Iraq? The Republicans are calling the Democrats’ bluff and daring them to vote against this unpopular war. They should vote yes – in large numbers.

Nevermind. The results just came in. The resolution calling for speedy withdrawal failed 403-3. Remind me, what do the Democrats stand for, exactly?

Bush may yet pull this one out. Even if he doesn’t, I don’t consider the fall of the Bush administration to be any kind of “success.” The only person, clearly, who can defeat George Bush is George Bush. Millions of us marching in the streets couldn’t prevent him from starting this stupid war. And after he leaves, we’ll still be left with new rules in Washington that say it’s okay to buy, rent, lease and borrow the media and journalists to sell an administration’s lies. We’re still left with so much of the world pissed off at our empire. We’re still left with gutted environmental standards, a dead Kyoto and a melting polar ice cap. We’re left with no moral authority on torture and weapons of mass destruction. We got more chickens coming home to roost long after Bush fades from the scene.

Before 9/11, before Bush, we had our own issues. We set our own agenda. Remember the Teamsters and the Turtles and the WTO? Nader and the Green Party? Day Without the Pentagon?

It’s going to take so long to go back to setting a people’s agenda. Alas, we’ll be cleaning up after Bush – with luck! – for many years.