Dear President Bush

Dear Mr. President, In my last letter to you dated Nov. 9, 2005, I wrote:

"Confession is good for the soul, and you, Mr. President, need to remove the taint that stains your soul. Confession can be cleansing and it can help you on the path to healing. Tell him everything. I suspect -- and I guess most of us suspect -- that the decision to out Valerie Plame as a covert CIA operative didn't come from Karl Rove or Scooter Libby or even Dick Cheney. It fits the kind of thing you did for your father's campaigns. Ambassador Wilson attacked your administration's rationale for war. And you wanted to be a war president and you didn't want anyone to question that. Of course you attacked back. It's what you do, whether it's Ambassador Wilson or Al Hunt or John Kerry or even your own father when you were a young man."

And I was right. The world now knows it was you that ordered the leak of highly classified information for political reasons. Who knows how many covert agents died as a result of your decision? Who knows how endangered you made our country by outing? You should feel ashamed of yourself, but we know from Mr. Taylor's astute question that you are incapable of that level of introspection. In my earlier letter, I suggested you could restore honor and integrity to your name by confession to Mr. Patrick Fitzgerald your crimes and resigning. It is too late for that. Your name will go down in infamy for launching an illegal and unnecessary war based off lies and your own desire to be a "war president." Your war has cost countless lives, bankrupted the country, tarnished our nation's honor and damaged our national security. And whether you can be charged with a criminal act or will escape on a technicality, you should resign. Confession is good for the soul and your soul is stained with innocent blood. The thought came to me tonight that you should resign for the children. It has become a cliche because of the television show The Simpsons (a show you should know since your father was featured on it) to ask someone to "think of the children." But as I held my 5-year-old daughter in my lap, I thought you should do it for the children. I held my arms around her and she had her face against my chest and I knew that no moment in my life would ever be better than that. And I sensed from her that she felt warm and loved and safe and happy. You are a father. You should know the feeling I'm talking about when you held your own girls. And I thought of all the American and Iraqi children that would grow up never knowing that feeling because their mothers and fathers died because of your lies. And I thought of all the fathers that would never get to hold their children again because they died because you wanted to invade a nation that had not harmed or threatened us. The latest revelations give you the opportunity to come clean with all of your misdeeds. The revelations are only going to get worse and make your days in office even more difficult. It is time for you to go, Mr. Bush. And take Dick Cheney with you. Perhaps the two of you can spend time together on your ranch clearing brush or quail hunting. And go hug your daughters. There are many fathers no longer able to do that.