The king of bad presidents: George W. Bush 

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Dubya's abuses of power are so far-reaching, they doubtless will one day be the stuff of legend. It's hard to compile a list of Bush's abuses of power and keep it short, but here's an attempt: Bush used the Department of Justice to punish political enemies and pervert the selection of judges and prosecutors; defied lawfully issued subpoenas; and ratcheted up the level of fear-mongering (even color-coded it!) in order to radically expand his own power by exploiting the fear of international terrorism. He knowingly lied about intelligence reports in order to take the country into an unnecessary war that killed or wounded more than 34,000 U.S. soldiers; oversaw an unprecedented, broad program of computer-snooping and warrantless wiretapping of American citizens; ordered, and defended, the arrest and indefinite detention of anyone he deemed an "enemy combatant," and set up a detention center in Guantanamo Bay to hold most of them; OK'd the use of prisoner interrogation techniques that are universally recognized as torture; approved the "rendition" of prisoners to countries where they were tortured; spied on peaceful groups such as the Quakers and the American Civil Liberties Union; and last but certainly nowhere near least, Bush made a habit of issuing "signing statements" that laid out which provisions in new laws he would abide by -- a view of presidential power that is breathtakingly unconstitutional.

Warmongering

In addition to having successfully fought the War of 1812, the Civil War and two world wars, the United States has also enjoyed an abundance of presidents eager to send military forces to kick the hell out of people who hadn't attacked us. The list is long, beginning with the Mexican War -- a blatantly illegal move by James K. Polk (1845-49) -- and continuing until today*. Bush's contribution to the list is probably what he'll be most remembered for. As noted above, Bush launched an invasion of Iraq, under false pretenses, although the country had never attacked us (which is the Number One definition of a war crime, by the way). In the process, he catastrophically mismanaged the war, turned millions of Iraqis into refugees (and around 100,000 of them into corpses), and dragged America's name and image through the mud. Add to that Bush's constant saber-rattling against Iran, a country that is nowhere close to developing nuclear weapons, and his plans for installing missiles on Russia's doorstep, and you've got a president who, to be generous, is seriously deficient in the ways of normal diplomacy.

Corruption

Until Bush came along, the icons of presidential corruption were Ulysses S. Grant (1869-77) and Harding. Both men ran corrupt administrations in which their cronies gave their friends sweetheart deals and engaged in blatant graft. Neither man is believed to have personally profited from his cronies' crimes, although both of them, to some degree, knew that something rotten was going on. We don't yet know whether Dubya profited from the sweetheart deals enjoyed by members and friends of his administration, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Nonetheless, there are so many documented examples of Bush-friendly companies and CEOs getting favorable treatment -- including Vice President Dick Cheney's infamous 2001 meeting with oil execs to allow them to write the administration's energy policy -- and of Bush officials profiting from industries they were supposed to be regulating; we don't have space to detail them here. A quick look at Cheney's former company, Halliburton, alone, however, is revelatory: Halliburton has been cited by at least 10 different official reports for massive, multi-billion dollar cost overruns; overcharging for services rendered; illegal kickbacks; and sloppy, incomplete work for which it was paid richly.

You may have noticed something about the four categories above: Bush is the only president who shows up in all four. In fact, you can almost say that Dubya combines many of the characteristics of the bad presidents who came before him into one big, nasty package. Incompetent and corrupt? Dubya makes Harding look like George Washington. Abuse of power? Move over, Nixon. Warmongering? Polk and McKinley have nothing on our boy.

Princeton historian Sean Wilentz says that great presidents are those who, when confronted with terrible circumstances, "rally the nation, govern brilliantly, and leave the republic more secure than when they entered." Calamitous presidents, he continues, "have divided the nation, governed erratically and left the nation worse off." Three guesses into which category Wilentz places Bush.

* The following is a summary of military actions by the United States since 1891, excluding the two world wars:

Chile -- 1891 -- Marines sent to Chile and clashed with nationalist rebels.

Haiti -- 1891 -- American troops suppress a revolt by black workers on U.S.--claimed Navassa Island.