President's behavior harms the democracy he claims to protect

If this wasn't so scary it would be funny.

President Bush is on a power trip. Maybe it's rooted in the meteoric rise of this man who, while just a C student at Yale, went on to occupy this nation's highest office. It might have something to do with the fact that as governor of Texas — the only elected position he held before entering the White House — Bush had less constitutional authority than virtually any other governor in the nation.

Or it could stem from the way he backed into the presidency. You may recall that, even though Bush eked out a majority of electoral college votes in 2000, more people cast ballots for Al Gore.

Whatever the reason, Bush is on a power trip that seems to be hurtling him — and this nation — toward a political abyss.

Last week, in the face of growing congressional opposition to his plan to send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq, the president said he wouldn't be deterred by such criticism.

"I'm the decision-maker," he snapped.

That's a new twist on an old assertion by Bush. Last year, pressed to get rid of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, he declared his power in a similar way.

"I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation," Bush said. "But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."

Rumsfeld resigned in November after voters unhappy with Bush's war policies gave Democrats a majority in Congress.

We should have noticed the early warning signs of Bush's festering power complex years before his 2004 re-election.

When he spoke of Osama bin Laden in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Bush sounded more like Roy Bean — a 19th century West Texas judge who was quick to use a hangman's noose to dispense justice — than the head of the world's leading democracy.

"I want justice. There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, "Wanted: Dead or Alive," Bush declared when asked about the hunt for the terrorist leader.

Two years later, as attacks on American troops in Iraq escalated, Bush taunted the militants with this bit of tough talk: "There are some who feel that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: Bring 'em on."

That's the bravado of a commander in chief who sends other people's children to fight a war of his choosing while he sends his own kids to college. It also illustrates Bush's penchant for mindless muscle-flexing when a more judicious choice of words is needed. He is, apparently, no fan of the West African proverb that Theodore Roosevelt popularized in this country: "Speak softly and carry a big stick."

Bush's bluster isn't just a character flaw; it's a window into the mind of a man who has taken this nation on a costly detour away from our fight against the terrorists behind the 2001 attacks.

What you see through that window is a man insulated and isolated from the world around him — a president who finds it hard to be presidential when he most needs to be. Instead, Bush too often responds like a dictator when his actions are challenged.

That kind of behavior doesn't sit well with many Democrats — and some Republicans.

"I would suggest respectfully to the president that he is not the sole decider," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said in objecting to Bush's statement that he alone determines the military's role in Iraq.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war and to appropriate funds to keep a war going. That power challenges the notion that Bush, or any other president, can prosecute a war without the ongoing advice and consent of Congress.

That Bush has chosen to do otherwise undermines the democracy he claims this war is being waged to protect.

DeWayne Wickham writes for Gannett News Service. Reach him at DeWayneWickham@aol.com.