They read our e-mail, too

Do you remember when I said that, when all is said and done and this presidency is in the rearview mirror, it would be discovered to have been the most shady, dishonest, power-hungry and scandalous of the bunch? I said that the Bush Administration will go down as one of the dirtiest presidencies in history. Years ago, more of you would have argued.
How do you argue that the Administration has, behind the people's backs (screw that, behind the law's back), fired federal prosecutors in several states because they were not as loyal to the president and Republicanism as the Administration feels they should be?
Where is this not an act of dictatorialism? Or communism? Or some other kind of "ism"? How is this within the realm of what can happen in a country that is supposed to celebrate different points of view, as well as separate church and state? How is it that there is still another year before the yahoo sitting in the big chair gets kicked out of office?
Some people may be blind to all the president's faults. So many see what they want to see, and refuse to believe that this guy is on a serious power trip that has cost American lives, as well as trillions of dollars. (I would totally vote for Bill Clinton again.)
"Hey," you may say, "he didn't fire those guys." True. The hammer has fallen on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' head. Gonzales handed out the pink slips. But do we really believe that he acted on his own? Would an Attorney General so egregiously ignore the whole Constitution and its declaration of our right to think what we want in order to fire some prosecutors? Doubtful. People like that don't act like that unless they've been prevailed upon to do so. Bush's Administration is full of the people that would demand such action (*cough, cough* Karl Rove and Dick Cheney *cough, cough*).
My question is this: Has this president and his administration so damaged our national self esteem and international reputation that it can not be fixed? I'm thinking that, perhaps not indefinitely, but the Bush scars will be with us for a long time.