Some Dictator

Jeff Jacoby, writing in the Boston Globe takes a look at the oft-repeated claims that President Bush is acting like a dictator, or is actually trying to become one. His conclusion? Not even close.

So when the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld last week, Bush's reaction was easy to foretell: He would show the ruling all the respect of a monster truck rolling over a VW Beetle. No doubt he would emulate one of his predecessors, Andrew Jackson — another polarizing president whose enemies labeled him a dictator. It would be Worcester v. Georgia all over again.

Worcester was an 1832 case in which the Supreme Court held that the state of Georgia could not impose its laws on the Cherokee nation living within its borders. Its attempt to do so, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote for the majority, was “repugnant to the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States." Jackson saw the decision as a challenge to his policy of Indian removal and sided with Georgia, which refused to obey the court's ruling. What the case is best remembered for today is Jackson's withering observation that the court's ruling had no teeth.

“John Marshall has made his decision," Jackson supposedly said. “Now let him enforce it."

Fast-forward 174 years. President Bush learns the court's ruling in Hamdan has gone against him. A five-justice majority held the military commissions created by the administration to try the Guantanamo detainees are invalid, since they were never authorized by congressional statute. The justices seem to have repudiated Bush's claim that the Constitution invests the president with sweeping unilateral authority in wartime. “The court's conclusion ultimately rests upon a single ground," Justice Stephen Breyer pointedly notes in a concurrence. “Congress has not issued the Executive a `blank check.' "

Whereupon Bush says — what? “The justices have made their decision; now let them enforce it?" Something even more acidic? Perhaps he repeats a statement he has made previously — “I'm the decider, and I decide what is best"?

Not quite. He says he takes the court's decision “seriously." A few moments later he says it again. And then comes this: “We've got people looking at it right now to determine how we can work with Congress, if that's available, to solve the problem." There is no disdain. No bravado. No criticism. Just an acknowledgment that the Supreme Court has spoken and the executive branch will comply.

Some dictator.

Jacoby is spot on here. Not that that will make any difference to the left. For their world view will not tolerate any questioning of their core belief structure.