Susan this article makes me laugh. You and your liberal friends encouraged the HATE Bush and never discouraged it. That makes you just as guilty of it all. The difference now is the conservatives instead of talking against the president elect are trying to help him. If McCain won the hate would have continued. This shows the character of the parties.

Bush has done a lot to sully the good office of the presidency. You're right, Susan, in that we must respect the office, if not the man/woman holding it. Bush hasn't earned/doesn't deserve our respect for him as a president, but I still surely respect the office. And I'm confident Barack Obama will restore the respect we should have for the officeholder by his words and actions. Frankly, I'm just happy we're going to have someone in there again who can speak in complete sentences and in understandable English! Clinton was the last one, sandwiched between the two Bushes who couldn't seem to string together five words that made sense. The inauguration cannot come soon enough!

Years ago when George W Bush was president of Harken Oil , he attended a board meeting and learned that the company was in deep financial trouble. He left that meeting and sold over 800,000 shares before the minutes of that meeting could reach the general public. This was a crime much greater in magnitude than anything that Martha Stewart ever did. Members of my family who owned Harken Oil stock were financial devastated by this outright theft by Bush. George W. Bush should have been prosecuted but the SEC looked the other way because George Hervert Walker Bush was then the president of the United States. Had the SEC done it's job, this criminal and ethically challenged person would never have sniffed the Oval Office much less had the power to do as many criminal acts as he has perpetrated on American citizens.
The holding of Jose Padilla , an American citizen, without bail, formal charges, and no right of hebeas corpus for almost seven years is alone a monstrous criminal act that should never have been tolerated. No president has the right to do that to any citizen, but Bush did that. That Hitlerian abuse of power alone should disqualify him forever of any right to be respected.
robert Lipka

Sorry to tell you Susan but the liberals have shown nothing but´hatred´and contempt for George Bush while he set up the programs to keep them safe over the past 7 years. In a TV program in Germany on Tuesday night Anglea
Merkel was asked about her opinion of Bush and then Obama. She surprise all the different TV commentors when she said that history will show th at he was right about a lot of thé things the rest of the world was against. She is afraid of what Obama plans. I think that we are in for a´wild ride with Obama as no one really knows even now what he really thinks or plans to do.

Ms. Estrich, This column reminds me that you are that rare bird- a principled liberal. I agree with you that we should be able to treat those with whom we disagree with respect. I will be very difficult for me, though, not to treat this new president with the same courtesy and respect that your side treated George Bush - that is to say, none at all. Regards, C.S.

Ma'am;.... If you do not think history will be kind to Mr. Bush; can you imagine what a fair jury would do to him if all the facts were available???Government and parties believe they protect themselves when they keep the truth from the people, and deny the people justice... All they do is make injustice more certain, and the condition of the people more precarious... What ever history says of Mr. Bush I will guarantee it to be a false verdict based upon faulty and manufactured evidence.... But the people know... Enough people know from seeing the effects, and the contempt of the man for our laws and our opinions and our rights... Mr. Obama has already broadcast that he will not seek justice, and will not pursue torturers, justice for the people, or a change of course for the presidency...Each man in that position protects his prerogatives, and plays for reelection...In doing so they forfeit any right to our respect...Thanks...Sweeney

Re: Kathaleen McCausland;...Ma'am, enjoy your laugh... The fact is that us liberals have endured Mr. Bush with all the patience of a legal society without him deserving a part of it... He took advantage of a political outrage to attack Iraq... He was smart enough to play the congress for a pack of fools as if that were some great feat... But what they gave him was an entirely free hand to deal with Saddam Hussein from a position of strength...He took that vote of confidence and support as a ticket into endless war with a people who were generally our friends... People like Mr. Bush are too stupid to be president,  and were it not for the electorate being so absolutly incapable of admitting a mistake -right in their faces, then Mr. Kerry would have been elected... And I will admit Kerry was not much for a candidate... And the democrats did not have rove, or the swift boaters....But, I pity the voter who cannot see through that nonsense... It was clear that Mr. Bush held the liberals of this country in contempt...Should they not return the favor??? It is clear that Mr. Bush held the laws of this land in contempt; and should the law abiding of this land not hold him accountable??? It is clear that Mr. Bush held international conventions and laws in contempt, and that he did willingly that which caused the nazis at Nuremberg to be hanged, and he did so with the permission and consent of the right, and the religious, and the financiers, and the oil men who enabled him... I do not hate anyone on this earth... I do sleep easier now that fearing the likes of Mr. Bush doing what he was born for is nearly behind us...And I thank God...Thanks...Sweeney

Re: Gene44;...Sir, so you don't know what Mr. Obama thinks or plans to do now???It is good to see you recognize that he thinks and plans, which puts him miles ahead of the last Bush... And isn't a little inscrutablility good for our foreign relations??? One thing is certain: what ever Mr. Obama does will not include our torn up, over used, played out military; and it will not take money which we do not have any more, and which is perilously close to turning into so much paper... So that leaves just about every thing out but the nuclear option... That's cool...Think of how many people we could have threatened with our military if Mr. Bush had not decided to use them once in futility... You guys are just like your idea of a president... There is nothing of finesse about you... You are just so many blunt objects...Thanks...Sweeney

Re: robert lipka;...Sir, any administration that ignores such injustice and criminality in the former adminstration thinking to buy itself some peace and unity is buying a nightmare... Mr. Obama should consider that the right does not want to be reconciled with America, and that it has long ago deserted the cause for which this nation was created... Let him play for the center... He may be smart to govern the nation for the whole nation... But every vote he loses on the left he will never make up on the right... He has not even taken office, and the attacks have not once ended to begin again... He is already hated having done nothing other than getting elected and being black... Ultimatly, only justice for all will save this place, and too many look at that cure as the purest poison...Thanks...Sweeney

If liberals would only do what you suggest. You are very wise. Liberals gave Bush the benefit of the doubt after 9-11 until the Iraq debacle. After that it was proven that Bush used the American people's trust against them for purely political purposes. The war had nothing to do with WMD but promoting the neo-con agenda of American dominance in world affairs and eliminating threats(or preceived threats) against it. WMD was an excuse, nothing else. One may respect the Presidency but not necessarily the man who occupies the office. I don't hate the man either, but I hate what he did and ones who helped him do it.

Re: Raine; .. Ma'am, respecting an office is form, and forms without relationship are empty; empty of meaning, empty of honor, and empty of trust... Think of it as a marriage, another form of relationship, and how difficult it would be to keep it together on any level without honor and trust... We cannot make office mean more to us than it means to those in office, and to try is pitiful... If the form of our government does not work, then change it...Only our misplaced trust is keeping it going, and as long as we trust without good reason we will be used...Is used how you like to feel; because I resist it, and for the reason that it just does not work for me...Thanks...Sweeney

No wonder our country is in such bad shape. Where do such unintelligent people come from? Susan is lost. If she was attacked she would not be so dumb.

Now you want to be nice? Now you want your friends to put away the hate -- after almost 8 continuous years of Bush bashing? Now you want to play fair? That's not how it works. Have you ever heard about treating others the way you want to be treated? Your column was laughable and whether or not you ever actually said that you "hated" George Bush is irrelevant -- the implication was evident.
Bush will undoubtably go down in history as the most maligned President in the history of our country, but only if people like you are honest enough to admit that the rhetoric got way out of hand. He has been called stupid, a failure as a human being, a liar, an idiot, a fool, and everything in between. And you and your liberal friends and the folks in Hollywood have been stoking the fire all along.
Your column was an obvious play for fair play for Obama. Mistakes, not a problem, his will all be honest and his actions sincerely taken. He will get a pass; he's the annointed one. And when Republicans question his actions, they will be hammered for being unfair.
It's too late to put the gloves back on. You should of thought of civility a long time ago.