Bush is going out of office without a bang; GOP senators alone are rightly opposing bailout

With an unprecedented low for his approval rating, President George W. Bush should be thinking about going out of office with a bang and opposing the bailout of the Big 3 automakers.

Instead, he is trying to convince principled GOP senators who are rightly opposing this new brand of socialism, rewarding corporations and their executives for making the wrong decisions.

Democrats still believe they have the support to pass the bailout by week's end. But GOP senators could filibuster and resurrect their party's fortunes in one spectacular legislative moment before Obama has a chance to enter office. He would have the shortest voter mandate in U.S. history.

I like Bush. I always have. I've interviewed him twice at the White House, and each time he was most gracious. And he came off as smart. Harvard doesn't give away its MBAs, you know.

But he is so damn stubborn, just like his mother, and he is a momma's boy just like me. And it doesn't matter that he is acting like a contrary jackass even to the end of a presidency that most Americans will see as a complete failure.

They'd be wrong, but the president sure isn't helping himself by backing the bailout and opposing the principled efforts of senators from his own political party.