White House aide declares (in essence) that Americans want a King George

In a story broadly - and unflatteringly - comparing the administrations of Vladimir Putin and George Bush, Jim Hoagland in Thursday's WaPo quoted a White House aide, defending U.S. policies at Gitmo, secret prisoner renditions for torture, and 4th Amendment violation warrantless eavesdropping: "The powers of the presidency have been eroded and usurped to the breaking point. We are engaged in a new kind of war that cannot be fought by old methods. It can only be directed by a strong executive who alone is not subject to the conflicting pressures that legislators or judges face. The public understands and supports that unpleasant reality, whatever the media and intellectuals say." -- In other words, according to this unidentified White House aide, "The American people need and want a King George." Hoagland, not exactly a liberal mind, doesn't seem to buy it, which is the point of his report. Taking a cue from Hoagland's unidentified source, Dan Froomkin asks the question, "Why does President Bush think he can get away with ruling more and more like an absolutist? Maybe because that's what the American people really want." To support or contest this thesis, Froomkin has invited readers to post comments at the WaPo forum. You'll need to register. And he also requests "please post using your real name and please treat your fellow posters with respect even if you think they are on crack." -- "… a strong executive who alone is not subject to the conflicting pressures that legislators or judges face." Is there any possible way to interpret the phrase "conflicting pressures" to which "a strong executive who alone is not subject" other than to mean "a King not bound by the law and the Constitution"? I offer a partial quote in rebuttal: "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security" full quote here (note to the FBI and Secret Service: I am confident you know how to find me, should your masters judge the above to be a declaration to overthrow the government, for indeed that is precisely what it is.)