William Barr is going out a winner.
When I wrote my obituary for the George W. Bush administration a few weeks before the Obama inauguration, I argued that Bush will go down in history as one of the most “successful” presidents of the modern age. This contention was greeted with, shall we say, an adult dose of consternation and wrath.
Those ruinous tax cuts? September 11? Iraq and the WMD? The racism? The obliterated economy? Dick Cheney? How can you say he was successful?!
Because he was, and wildly so, according to the metrics of those he was actually representing. The tax cuts and the wars simultaneously enriched his friends and allies while demolishing the government’s ability to serve the people, thus fulfilling Reagan’s fused-loop prophesy: “See! Government doesn’t work.”