"We Can Accept Fascist Powers If We Can Waive Using Them"

That seems to be the position of the Obama Administration, that as long as they don't want to throw people in prison indefinitely with no Constitutional protections, it's OK with them if Congress gives them that power.

Are they all nucking futs? The entire point of having a written constitution is so that we don't have to depend on the good will of any particular sovereign. Maybe President Obama is not comfortable with labeling people as "terrorists" and imprisoning them forever, but for damn sure, a President Cheney would have had no problem with locking up everyone who was not a registered Republican.

We already know that there is an entire political party which regards "the rule of law" as an outmoded principle for a gentler age, like back when the enemy was the Soviet Union and we lived under the threat of being annihilated in less time than it took Herman Cain to deliver a pizza. But now we have a president, a man who once taught Constitutional Law, saying that it's OK if he has dictatorial powers as long as he doesn't use them.

Does this make sense to anyone?

Oh, and once again, the Democrats showed their negotiating ability on the matter of the payroll tax cut. But that's nothing new.