It was unsettling last week to see Bush turn up on the newswire while, at the same time, the headlines were covered with his fingerprints. Obama’s Iraq draw down? Cleaning up after Bush’s Saddam bender. Big tax decisions looming? Yep, the clock ticking down on the tax cuts for the rich. Wikileaks brouhaha? Well, if Bush hadn’t neglected Afghanistan after 9/11….

What’s really creepy, though, is how bad he looks. (Just hope it’s not a warm up for the book tour.) You’d think he’d be rested and relaxed. The fact he looks so glassy and washed out two years out-of-D.C. — and, finally left to his own devices — just suggests how hard he had to work while in office to keep it together. …And then Laura, with the perfection thing, is a whole other story.

Anyway, having elected Obama for his patience and level-headedness in relief, it’s a scary reminder to see Bush so close to that baseball bat.

(Slightly edited, 8/4. 12:15am PST.)