Bush’s object lesson in gracious departure

In 2001, soon after George W. Bush’s inauguration, a bit of gossip surfaced from the White House: outgoing Clinton staffers had crept around the place taking the Ws off keyboards, phone wires had been snipped, furniture broken, glue placed on desk drawers and satirical signs hung up directing people to the ‘Office of Strategery’. Not bad as pranks go, but the country was not in the mood for laughing. The Bush presidency was already on the back foot after a botched election and protracted court battle. There was anger and resentment all around even though everyone’s official stance was grace, optimism and moving forward. The plundered Ws struck Republicans as a grave insult to the dignity of the office.

The new White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, was solemn. He insisted that the Bush administration, having promised to restore honour to the White House, was not going to dwell on every last Clinton trick. That promise was kept even as the Bushies left the White House: there were no childish antics this time round. Dignity had been restored to the transition at least.

Of course Americans have more pressing concerns than the jokes one group of White House staffers played on another. But Mr Bush’s supporters have a point. Say what you will about the ex-president, but the man has made a graceful exit. There was no last-minute skulduggery. He granted fewer than 200 pardons, a relatively small number, and skipped over controversial convicts like Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff who got himself caught in the middle of the endless, incomprehensible Valerie Plame affair. Bush asked Congress to release the second half of the $700 billion bank bail-out money, which spared the new President from having to make this unpopular request early on.