43 for ol' Number 43

It would be wrong to underestimate the extent to which George W. Bush is--and has been for his whole life--a self-made failure. To be given the opportunities he's been handed throughout his whole life, and run them straight into the ground every single time, without exception--that takes some kind of native talent.

Still, a team is a team, and the Center for American Progress has collected the 43 people who helped make Bush the Worst. President. Ever.

Number 1 is easy, of course:

1 . Dick Cheney -- The worst Dick since Nixon. The man who shot his friend while in office. The "most powerful and controversial vice president." Until he got the job, people used to actually think it was a bad thing that the vice presidency has historically been a do-nothing position. Asked by PBS's Jim Lehrer about why people hate him, Cheney rejected the premise, saying, "I don't buy that." His top placement in our survey says otherwise.

But have you forgotten Number 9? How about Number 16? Or Numbers 20 through 24? How about Numbers 25 and 38, each of whom deserves his own special ring in Hell?

And the thing to remember is this: One or two of them may have slipped off to extradition-free countries, and a fair number are still in the US but dare not travel abroad. But as far as I could tell from first reading, they're all still out there, doing fine. Some are living it up on the five-figure lecture circuit. Others are kicked back in the cushy think-tank positions where they lived out the Clinton years. None of them, as far as I can tell, has paid in any proportion for the harm they've helped bring down upon the country.