My inbox lit up this morning with a message from a fellow Washingtonian, apparently too eager to sleep on the eve of something so enormous. He wasn't talking about the inaugural next Tuesday, which locals expect to bring out either the best or worst in the city. No, he was talking about Friday, awaiting the last-minute actions on the last official work day of the Bush administration. "Epic day of news dumping!" wrote my friend, who's not exactly a fan of the president. "It's gonna be sweet to watch!"

My friend could be right. Since Monday is a holiday, Friday is the effective last day of Bush's term, creating a deadline for everything else Bush wants to do in office: pardons, executive orders, even diplomatic shifts. With no press briefings remaining before Tuesday, anything the administration does on Friday won't be questioned by the press until after Bush leaves office. And the press corps, feverishly preparing for Tuesday's inaugural, has most of its attention elsewhere. In essence, the story isn't Bush anymore, and Bush's staff can use that to its advantage.

It's a sneaky but strategic time to make controversial decisions. President Clinton released a list of pardons on the last day of his presidency, which included a controversial name--fugitive financier Marc Rich--that Clinton never had to answer questions about while in office. Other presidents have used last-minute executive orders to somehow tie the hands of their successors on a specific policy. Gee, thanks.

Bush left early Friday for Camp David, signaling that all remaining action of his administration has already been set in motion. Will the Bush White House be trying to sweep anything under the rug? We'll be back on this page all day and over the weekend with updates.