On slagging people off once you're out of office

There's this article which praises Dubya for maintaining a dignified silence on the Obama administration.

On one hand, it's pretty easy to figure out why George W Bush is keeping his mouth shut. For much of my lifetime, Nixon and Carter were the former presidents who left the office in disgrace, but this guy managed to surpass them both. Nixon was a lousy president because of what he did. Carter was a lousy president in spite of what he did. Bush 2 was a lousy president because of what he did not do. (ie when Cheney and Rumsfeld were urging him on to do crazy shit he did not tell them to shut up and sit down.) He didn't give a shit, and he still doesn't give a shit, and he's keeping his mouth shut because of that, and also because he knows everybody thinks he's an idiot.

So it's not really a virtue that Bush 2 is keeping his counsel. (Even though it is noteworthy that Nixon and Carter after leaving the White House, worked hard at trying to salvage their reputations.)

But it's significant that a guy who formerly worked for Obama is praising Bush 2. A lot of people who used to work for Obama are now slagging him off in public. In effect Sunstein is saying to a lot of these guys "if even Bush 2 can shut up, why can't you?" Of course, admittedly, ppl like LKY and Mahathir could learn a thing or two from Dubya in this respect.