That sound you hear is Ann Coulter shrieking as her reality explodes into dust

So much for the "George Bush is a moral, ethical men" meme:

A majority of Americans say the indictment of senior White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby signals broader ethical problems in the Bush administration, and nearly half say the overall level of honesty and ethics in the federal government has fallen since President Bush took office, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News survey.

The poll, conducted Friday night and yesterday, found that 55 percent of the public believes the Libby case indicates wider problems "with ethical wrongdoing" in the White House, while 41 percent believes it was an "isolated incident." And by a 3 to 1 ratio, 46 percent to 15 percent, Americans say the level of honesty and ethics in the government has declined rather than risen under Bush.

In the aftermath of the latest crisis to confront the White House, Bush's overall job approval rating has fallen to 39 percent, the lowest of his presidency in Post-ABC polls. Barely a third of Americans -- 34 percent -- think Bush is doing a good job ensuring high ethics in government, which is slightly lower than President Bill Clinton's standing on this issue when he left office.

The survey also found that nearly seven in 10 Americans consider the charges against Libby to be serious. A majority -- 55 percent -- said the decision of Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald to bring charges against Libby was based on the facts of the case, while 30 percent said he was motivated by partisan politics.

[snip]

The ethics findings may be particularly upsetting to a president who came to office in 2000 vowing to restore integrity and honor to a White House that he said had been tainted by the recurring scandals of the Clinton years.

These numbers are interesting. There's that 28-30% figure showing up again, representing those Bushofascists who would support Bush no matter what he did. But that 55% believe the Libby case is representative of a larger pattern indicates that the American people really ARE waking up with their kool-aid hangover and realizing just what last November's election hath wrought. Now, why they're waking up now is obvious: it's because the mainstream media is finally doing its job, and the drumbeat of "Bush = Jesus" is no longer heard so relentlessly once you get outside of Fox News.

Especially galling to the wingnuts has to be that Bush now has lower ethics ratings than Bill Clinton did. I always knew that history would be relatively kind to Bill Clinton, painting him as a man who could have been our greatest president, but like so many men before him, couldn't keep his brain out of his dick and in his head where it belonged. But already we're seeing signs of this legacy -- of Bill Clinton as a reasonably good president, and even a reasonably ethical one, save for a personal weakness to which all too many men in Washington -- even the Christian conservative ones -- have fallen prey.

I can't even imagine what the scene is at Bush family dinners these days. I can't, But Steve Gilliard can. Go check out Parts I and II of his continuing series, "Inside the Bush White House." It's entertaining reading, and frighteningly plausible.