Battlepanda: Bush's overreaches

Battlepanda

Always trying to figure things out with the minimum of bullshit and the maximum of belligerence.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Bush's overreaches

Maybe because of the way he came into power and the pliant way the press has treated him ever since, I think Bush really lost all sense of boundaries as to what an executive can and cannot demand of the courts and the press.

-- One can't expect the courts to be a rubber stamp, and bypass them entirely when they refuse to act like one, even when one is the president.

-- One can't strong-arm the press into not covering unflattering stories indefinitely, even when one is the president.

President-elect Dubya said "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier...just as long as I'm the dictator..." It certainly seems like he's tried his hand at acting like a dictator with unbounded power. The cable networks who made so much hay out of the "Dean scream" need to dust off their archives and play a truly newsworthy soundbite instead -- Bush telegraphing his desire for despotic powers before his term has even begun.