VHeadline.com's roving commentarist Fred Cederholm writes: I’ve been thinking about togas. Actually I’ve been thinking about Imperial Rome, the movie Animal House, and the Bush Inauguration. We are all going to be in for quite a show today, January 20, when George W. Bush is sworn in to begin his second term as President.

You see we have just gone through the most expensive presidential election in our nation’s history.

To the victors belong the spoils, so… when the going gets tough, the tough party hearty. This will be the biggest and most expensive inaugural ever. In the past, the inauguration has set the tone/theme of the coming administration. This one will be no different.

The "W’s" of the Bush administration, like the "Delta’s" of Animal House, are on "double secret probation" -- being held collectively responsible for their past actions. The "W’s" have been strongly criticized by the world’s heads of state and their central bankers (plus almost half of America’s electorate) for their fiscal/financial and bellicose policies. These critics of the "W’s" expect changes and (dare I say it) a more fiscally responsible agenda in this second Bush administration. What kind of message will this inaugural bash send to them and to us?

We are told that the inauguration costs are to be borne by private contribution. Thus far the inaugural committee has raised about half of the estimated US$40 million cost of the four day celebration. Over 40 entities have each contributed $250,000, while over 60 more entities have contributed $100,000.

Virtually all have benefited from the policies of the first Bush administration -- Wall Street investment firms, energy companies, defense contractors, health care and pharmaceutical interests, and high income individuals. Several contributions are from entities currently under investigation for fraud, or overcharging the Federal government.

Are these "donations" a thank you for services already rendered by the "W’s", or a down payment on Uncle $ugar’s largesse yet to come?

What is the multiplier expected by the donors -- 10X, 100X, 1,000X, 10,000X for each buck contributed?

We are talking about the really big beltway players here -- those who have a lot to gain (and even more to lose) in the coming four years. At the very least, such generosity towards the investiture festivities, will buy you access!

The $40 million budget of private contributions for the celebrations does not reflect the costs of security. When D.C. Mayor Williams sought reimbursement for the projected $17+ million of the city’s extra security costs for the events, he was told to underwrite them from the quarter of a billion of Federal Homeland Security Grants that the Capital City has received over the past three years. Add to those the marginal costs from Uncle $ugar’s own security details and you are talking a very large number of taxpayer dollars which are subsidizing all the whoopla. D.C.’s marginal security expenses for W’s BUSHBASH II are almost double those from the BUSHBASH I of four years ago -- which totaled about $8 million.

This Presidential investiture of 2005 bears little resemblance to the simple swearing in ceremonies of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison.

The program of events seems more in tune with the galas of ancient Rome marking a new emperor. Those Uber-Romans used such events to wine and dine the patricians and to divert the plebians’ attention from their daily travails. It would appear that the "W’s" (like the "Delta’s") answer to having their backs to the wall for their past sins is: "TOGA PARTY!"

Inaugurals set the tone/theme.

Given the divisiveness in this nation after Campaign 2004, plus the worldwide animosity towards US/us due to the "W’s" NeoCon foreign policy (and dubious fiscal policy); we should draw upon the words of Abraham Lincoln from 1865: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Instead, I fear that we shall hear, "TOGA! TOGA! TOGA!"