Memo to America: Bush Wants a Showdown. Give Him One Already.

File this under the heading "Tell Us Something We Don't Know." OK, maybe we should file it somewhere else.

While Morphizm and others not on the continental grift have been trying to tell everyone from the casual American internet surfer to Nancy Pelosi herself, Bush isn't playing the power trip for popularity and effect. He's playing it to win by any means necessary. Meanwhile, the American people and the Congress that is supposed to be looking out for their best interests have treated this administration like a golf partner who, sure, has made some mistakes on the fairway but is a nice guy above it all on the green.

Wrong. Totally, incredibly, stupendously wrong.

President Bush has shown more than, say, 100 times that he's in this to win it. And by win it, I mean consolidate power and influence with zero concern for where it leads the country, economy or, in the end, the legislative branch. He's stacked the Supreme Court with conservative pals, and the Congress confirmed them without a thought. He's invented a devastating and crushingly expensive war, and Congress gave him a blank check and continues to do so. He's tortured and imprisoned thousands of innocents and killed millions of the same, all while spying like a pervert voyeur on the American people, and Congress has given him the greenlight to do so by taking impeachment off the table. It's getting harder and harder to figure out just what Congress needs to wake up and realize that he's simply a dictator performing a coup against the very people he has promised to represent.

Here's the fuck-you in a nutshell: His ratings are lower than ever, yet his power is greater than ever. If that doesn't say dictator, I sincerely don't know what does.

So it is with bizarro irony that we must turn to John Dean, of all the freaking people, to find a way out of this mess. The same John Dean who counseled none other than Richard Nixon, a Bush precursor who, although he was a scumbag of infinite proportions, simply cannot hold a candle to this administration. The dude resigned, for the Big Bang's sake. And Bush, no doubt, probably thought that an act of cowardice, rather than a sign of respect for not just the American people, but also his office.

The same John Dean that, according to his Wikipedia profile, was called a "master manipulator of the cover up" by the FBI. The same John Dean that plead guilty to obstruction of justice during the Watergate scandal, supervised hush money for the burglars and even settled a case against G. Gordon Liddy, who fingered him as the Watergate mastermind in the book Will.

Yet it is now Dean who speaks with clarity on the subject of executive corruption, and he should know. He breaks down Bush's bid for totalitarian rule quite easily in his latest column for FindLaw:

"By not responding to the subpoena, the President and Ms. Miers all but invited the House Judiciary Committee and, in turn, the House of Representatives to vote to deem her in contempt of Congress. It was a defiant, in-your-face insult to Congress. No president would do this unless he was quite confident of the outcome. Clearly, Bush's White House and Justice Department lawyers believe that the solidly conservative federal judiciary will grant them a favorable ruling, and that, in the process, they will greatly weaken congressional oversight powers, to the advantage of the White House.

In short, the Bush White House is not bluffing with this act of defiance. Rather, the White House truly wants to test, and attempt to expand, presidential power. Bush's White House is ready, willing, and able to play hardball. Indeed, the White House may actually be trying to bait the House Judiciary Committee and the House of Representatives into voting to deem Ms. Miers in contempt of congress."

But he saves the best part for last:

"Moreover, the Bush White House clearly believes the law is on its side. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Justice Department has provided the White House with a 'broadly worded legal opinion' advising that 'senior White House officials' can 'ignore subpoenas from Congress to testify about the U.S. attorneys affair.' This 'three-page opinion,' the L.A. Times says, 'raises questions about whether the Justice Department would prosecute senior administration officials if Congress voted to hold them in contempt." The L.A. Times's article also notes that, under the law, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columba decides whether or not to pursue such cases when they are referred by the House or Senate for prosecution."

So let me translate. We have a president with dismal approval ratings ignoring the will of the legislative branch because he has the Justice Department in his pocket, to go along with all the corporations, military, and most politicians as well, Republican and Democrat. (Please don't make me write out the laundry list of ways Democrats have enabled him. I'd get carpal tunnel just trying.)

In other words, Bush is no president. He is no CEO. He is a dictator, and the longer we wait to realize that, the longer the hyperreality will persist. Which one? The Consitution, a metafiction so obsolete that it may be only Bush who understands that it has no power in the new American millennium. With the Supreme Court, the Justice Department and half of Congress in his vice, he can squeeze the people until he feels satisfied that Exxon and his other corporate donors have taken all they can.

I would not be surprised in any way if there were a devastating attack, 9/11 style, headed our way right before election year. Right before he figures out a way to manufacture a third term. Or install a proxy. We are through the looking glass in our fabled "democracy." Did I say looking glass? I meant hourglass. Time's up, people.

It's fight or flight.