The presidency of George W. Bush needs to be born again, for the country's sake as well as his own. He needs to turn away from the arrogance, vindictiveness, spin and cronyism that have characterized his administration and embrace humility, candor, competency and accountability - in effect, an extreme makeover.

Last week marked the darkest days of Bush's once-swaggering presidency - the 2,000th American died in Iraq fighting an unpopular war; Harriet Miers, his choice for the Supreme Court, was forced to withdraw her nomination to quell a revolt on the Republican right; and the special prosecutor investigating the outing of a CIA agent followed the scent of scandal into the center of power inside the White House.

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Cheney, was indicted Friday on five counts of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice. Karl Rove, the president's powerful strategist, is still under investigation and may not yet be off the hook.

In his first presidential campaign, Bush promised the American people he would cleanse the White House of sleaze and scandal (at the time the country was still reeling from Bill Clinton's impeachment for lying about sex with a White House intern) and restore "honor and integrity" to the people's house.

Less than a year into his second term, Bush finds himself increasingly isolated and politically weakened as he watches his restoration of the "imperial presidency" crumble. Bush and Cheney came to office determined to reclaim and reassert the prerogatives of the chief executive that had eroded in the post-Watergate years. They used the "war on terror" and later the invasion of Iraq to concentrate power in the executive branch to a degree not seen since Richard Nixon's presidency.

After the 9/11 attacks, the London-based magazine the Economist wrote last week, Bush-Cheney advisers "seized on the crisis to restore the imperial presidency to its full purple - so much so that Chuck Hagel, a Republican senator, complained that they treated Congress as a mere ‘appendage.' "

The result was an arrogance of power and lack of intellectual seriousness that have led to Bush's fall from grace. The Libby indictment is rooted in the administration's efforts to manipulate intelligence and mislead the American people about the reason for going to war in Iraq. This is what comes from a White House mind-set that doesn't tolerate dissent and punishes administration critics who dare to speak the truth.

Bush should use this low point of his presidency to make a fresh start. The first thing he needs to do is to learn from his mistakes and change his way of governing. Yes, that means paying attention to details of his policy priorities and demanding more of his subordinates than just loyalty. With more than three years to go in his second term, he has time to right his off-course presidency. Except for the visceral Bush haters, most Americans had rather see the president succeed than fail, because they know that failure has consequences for our nation.

Regardless of whether Rove escapes indictment, Bush needs to shake up his White House staff, which is no longer on top of its game. That's what Ronald Reagan did at the height of the Iran-Contra scandal. And while he's at it, Bush should hold Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accountable for his mismanagement of the Iraq war and banish Dick Cheney to his secret bunker to pass the time reading torture manuals.

It would be out of character for a president who prizes personal loyalty above all else. So he'll probably just hunker down and try to ride out the political storm.

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