Bush loyalists predict positive legacy

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Veteran aides to President George W. Bush, preparing to exit the White House, say history will judge him favorably despite his chronic low approval ratings.

With two controversial terms nearing an end on Jan. 20, the loyal band of Bush supporters in his Cabinet and elsewhere predict the long term will judge his presidency as successful even as he is receives record low job approval ratings, USA Today reported Tuesday.

"History will show that President Bush was successful in protecting the homeland," Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, the only member of his original Cabinet who remains, told the newspaper.

"You never get credit for things that didn't happen," said Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, political director of Bush's first campaign for Texas governor in 1994. "Nobody says, 'Thank goodness no planes have crashed into any buildings lately.'"

"I think he did exactly the right thing (in invading Iraq), but we weren't prepared as a nation for what war is," Treasury Department chief of staff Jim Wilkinson told USA Today. Wilkinson has worked at the National Security Council, the State Department and the U.S. Central Command during Bush's two terms.