Can Bush just do whatever he wants?

Here's an article that will really get your blood boiling. It's called, "Are you Bush defenders just blowing smoke, or do you really not get it?" and it's by Andrew Bard Schmookler. You really need to click through and read the whole thing to get the full impact but I'm going to give you this little tidbit:

Take for example the recent performance of President Bush's new press secretary, Tony Snow. In a recent press briefing, Snow was fielding questions about the NSA gathering of Americans' phone records.

Snow happily cited a quick poll indicating that almost two-thirds of Americans don't object to the government monitoring such records for the presumed purpose of catching terrorists. But when presented with other negative poll results, Snow declared that a president "cannot base national security on poll numbers."

A reasonable statement, but, as the press should immediately have asked: Mr. Snow, can a president base on poll numbers his decision whether or not to obey the law? And would you be interested in seeing what the American people would say to pollsters if asked, "Can the president do whatever he wants, regardless of the law?"

Who are you kidding, yourself or us? Do you really not get that the issue here is neither opinion polls nor national security, but rather a president who refuses to respect any legal limits to his powers?

This is the question: Can the president do whatever he wants, regardless of the law? The Bush defenders say "yes." What have we become? Dear God, what have we become?