Even Roman dictators still had constraints on what they could do

steve clemons riffs on sidney blumenthal's assault on bush and cheney's bag of cowpies, the unitary executive...

Bush has become the epitome of a Roman dictator in the 21st century in his assertion of "unitary executive" authority which this White House has argued has "inherent and limitless powers in his role as commander in chief, above the system of checks and balances." The problem is that unlike Rome, where the Senate granted the dictator great powers, Congress has not -- in fact -- given Bush the authority to operate beyond his Constitutional authority. Bush has, instead, asserted that authority and taunted Congress to stop him.

This power grab should dominate our media and our civic discourse. Our President -- via a deranged, anti-democratic team of power-obsessed thugs in Vice President Cheney's office -- is engaged in a clear assault on the core architectural joists of American democracy.

nothing i haven't been hollering about here for quite some time, but it takes steve reasoned-discourse-and-moderation-are-the- cornerstones-of-my-religion clemons a little longer than most to call the fire department...

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