Just a thought … but what would happen tomorrow if President Obama came to the microphone and announced:
“My fellow Americans, I have come to my senses and I want to stand here and apologize to my Republican friends from the former administration for any implication there may have been from the White House that they were in any way wrong about using the CIA to torture people in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. I just don’t know what I was thinking, you know? OF COURSE I want the power to make people disappear and then hurt them until they say anything I want. Why wouldn’t a president want to be able to listen in to the conversations and read the email of, oh, I don’t know, political enemies who threaten the national security some how and all hush hush and state secrets and suspended habeas corpus and all that lawyer double talk? I mean, what president wouldn’t want to look across the table and be able to say “how would you like to visit Cuba? ‘Cause that’s where you’re going if you don’t sign off on this.”? I mean, it’s just too good. I mean, if you wanted a national show trial of, I don’t know, say, a former Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State or maybe even an elected official that isn’t really either judicial, legislative or executive, you know, I mean, it would be better if the show trial could include a nice videotaped confession, you know.
So, as to the press conference, the first amendment no longer applies to the president since we’re at war and all and you guys can buzz off and if you don’t like it, just remember Abu Grahib and Baghram have plenty of room for dissenters.
Good night, America. Sleep tight. I got it covered. Out.”

I don’t think the right wing realizes that they are, in essence, arguing that all presidents have the power that Bush arrogated to himself. Have they considered an Obama presidency with those powers and the willingness to use them that Dick Cheney displayed?

Do conservatives, or at least what passes for those that use that word, really want a president with that much power? I can’t believe iit. I can’t believe they don’t know what they are saying. I just can’t believe an American political party can be so far off the beam as to really be arguing in favor of a permanent despotic presidency.
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