One More Year To Sell "01.20.09"

For three years, a Vermont pipe carver angry at President Bush has built a million-dollar business around the digits "01.20.09"

On Jan. 20, 2009 - one year from today - Elliot Nachwalter and his company, "Bush's Last Day," will have to find new inspiration.

That's the day President George W. Bush leaves the White House.

"I have a couple little products lined up. Both of them have nothing to do with politics," Nachwalter said. "I'd like to think this time we won't have to do another end-of-term button."

First doodled on a dining room table, then slapped onto lapel buttons, "01.20.09" has become wildly popular.

"It was like a bulb, a light went off," said Nachwalter, who drew it up in a fit of pique prompted by Mr. Bush's refusal to sign a piece of environmental legislation. "I started giving them out to my friends and anybody who thought it was interesting and I couldn't have enough of them. I said, 'Maybe I should think about selling them."'

Now, more than 600 businesses across the country sell the T-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers and other products that proclaim "01.20.09," some with the subtext "Bush's Last Day" and "Earth, Water, Air." The Internet has spread the message - and the products - globally.

"The Web site became like a cult thing. Everybody would send it to their mailing list and things started to grow pretty rapidly," said Nachwalter.

"01.20.09" has appeared in movies, on late night television shows - even on a Humvee in Iraq. Meanwhile, "Bush's Last Day" countdown key chains tick off the days, hours, minutes and seconds until Bush's era ends at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

After the first buttons, Nachwalter started out in a closet. But he kept outgrowing his space. Now, he and six employees work 16-hour days filling orders out of a Manchester industrial park.

The product line has grown as well. There are refrigerator magnets, coffee mugs, golf balls, greeting cards, even "Fire Bush Hot Sauce" and dog treats called "Bush Biskits."

Donna Tsitsikaos, a spokeswoman for America, a gift store chain with 17 retail outlets in the Washington, D.C., area and New Jersey, said five of its best-selling products with political themes came from Bush's Last Day.

America first started selling the Bush's Last Day key chains. Now, they sell 12 Bush's Last Day items.

"We've been thrilled. It'll continue to be in our lineup through the rest of 2008," Tsitsikaos said. "We're hoping the company will come up with something creative after this product goes out of style."

Renee Carl, a left-wing political activist from Washington, said she sees a lot of the "01.20.09" bumper stickers in her Washington neighborhood. She has one on her refrigerator. She has sent them as presents in birthday cards.

"We think everyone doing work thinking toward a new progressive administration is doing great work," said Carl.

As for Bush sympathizers?

Blair Latoff, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, took a question about the president's last day in stride. "On January 20, 2009 the next Republican President will continue to keep our nation safe and work to let Americans keep more of their hard-earned tax dollars," she said.

It seems only fitting that the venting of the frustration some feel at the Bush presidency should come from Vermont, the land of the impeachment movement, Ben & Jerry's, and a socialist senator. It's the only state in the nation Bush hasn't visited as president.

Nachwalter, 57, is cut from the same cloth as Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, transplanted New Yorkers all who moved to Vermont in the hippie era and then made their marks on the state and the world.

For a time, Nachwalter even had a pipe shop across the street in Burlington from the converted gas station where Ben and Jerry first sold the ice cream that made them famous.

Until Nachwalter started handing out his buttons three years ago, he wouldn't have been mentioned alongside Vermont's more famous New York immigrants. But that was before frustration with the president's environmental policies prompted him to start drawing.

The company is now selling peace symbols and images of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Nachwalter said he thinks the two should run on the same ticket next year.

And he realizes that a year from Monday, the reason for his original anger will be gone, but he's hoping the boost Bush's Last Day has given his business will carry him into the future.