Imperial Assumptions--WaPo's Robinson on the Restoration of the US Emporer

[bertha katzenengel]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/19/AR2005121901554.html

It seems that the Imperial Presidency has been restored. The nation's highest office was cut down to constitutional size three decades ago, when Richard Nixon helicoptered out of town, but listening to George W. Bush in his latest come-out-swinging media blitz has been like an audience with an impatient monarch whose ungrateful subjects won't just shut up and do as he says.

~snip~

At his news conference yesterday, he took advantage of the sovereign's divine right to rewrite history. Clearly outraged at the Senate's recalcitrance on the USA Patriot Act, the president issued a challenge: "These senators need to explain why they thought the Patriot Act was a vital tool after the September the 11th attacks but now think it's no longer necessary." The president conveniently forgot to mention that Congress originally set a "sunset" date for the act to expire precisely because members were so deeply concerned about the extent to which it compromised our liberties.

~snip~

In his brief prepared remarks at his news conference yesterday, the president mentioned the Sept. 11 attacks eight times. None of us who lived through that awful, world-changing day will ever be able to forget it. I remember how surreal it was to see the great plume of smoke rising from the Pentagon; I remember how vulnerable I felt, how angry, how full of patriotic resolve. I understand how any president would immediately decide that his prime task, above all others, was making sure that nothing like Sept. 11 ever happened again. I get the sense that the president wakes up every day with the sour fear of another attack in the pit of his stomach.

But every American felt the same way after Sept. 11 as the president and his Cabinet did. It's just that many of us have concluded that defeating Islamic fundamentalism cannot be accomplished by abandoning basic American values.

~snip~

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/19/AR2005121901554.html

(I wrote Eugene Robinson a letter after reading this:

"I love columnists, Mr. Robinson, because you express all of my own thoughts -- the ones that won't come out as words, the ones that I am too incensed to try to articulate. At the current administration's dishonesty, imperialism, and intransigence, I have been capable only of stammering -- in thought as well as speech -- "no way -- but, but, but -- oh, I don't believe this $*#% -- you are a liar! . . ." I'm just too emotional to be coherent." . . .)

[necso]

1. Mr Robinson can bring on the heat, and does here. /nt

[cliss]

2. Now look at a thread on the LBN

which explains that Cheney feels the "president's powers have been usurped".

The puzzle piece fits perfectly! My jigsaw puzzle is finished, and I have a beautiful, frameable masterpiece. It shows a country, going down in flames. On top of the ashes, stands one man: Cheney.