Bush challenges hundreds of laws

President Bush continues to insist that he is above the law, ruling more as a King than any other President who has preceded him.

But what's really astonishing, for a President who's popularity is bombing in the polls at 32%, is that he's getting away with it with so little resistance. Indeed, he's getting away with it with a press that are largely supine.

President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush's assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ''to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ''execute" a law he believes is unconstitutional.

Former administration officials contend that just because Bush reserves the right to disobey a law does not mean he is not enforcing it: In many cases, he is simply asserting his belief that a certain requirement encroaches on presidential power.

But with the disclosure of Bush's domestic spying program, in which he ignored a law requiring warrants to tap the phones of Americans, many legal specialists say Bush is hardly reluctant to bypass laws he believes he has the constitutional authority to override.

Far more than any predecessor, Bush has been aggressive about declaring his right to ignore vast swaths of laws -- many of which he says infringe on power he believes the Constitution assigns to him alone as the head of the executive branch or the commander in chief of the military.

Many legal scholars say they believe that Bush's theory about his own powers goes too far and that he is seizing for himself some of the law-making role of Congress and the Constitution-interpreting role of the courts.

The US system depends on a delicate balance between the Presidency, Congress and the courts. Bush is destroying that balance.

As we saw during the scandal of his use of illegal wiretapping, this man believes the law is what he says it is.

It's as near to a dictator as I think I'll see in an American president during my lifetime.

One can only hope that come the mid-term elections Bush will lose the House and a proper system of checks and balances will be returned to American politics.

On that day, it is my profound wish that the US will do the decent thing and impeach this man.

It is important that a line is drawn in the sand to warn future US Presidents that their power is not absolute.

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