U.S. friends and foes grabbing power - are they following US example? by Helen Thomas
While President Bush has been distracted with his unpopular war against Iraq, friends and foes are busy grabbing power to perpetuate themselves in office. Among them are Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia. There is little the United States can do about the drift toward authoritarian rule.
Bush -- with pressure from his neo-conservative vice president and staff -- has himself expanded presidential power in the name of the "war on terror." The power grab-bag of the US Bush administration extends from its warrantless wire tapping to the president's outrageous abuse of "signing statements" that he issues when putting his signature on new legislation; the statements are his claims that he won't be bound by certain sections of the bill he just signed into law. His decision to name as attorney general retired federal judge Michael Mukasey -- who believes the president is above the law in wartime -- is good insurance for Bush's power surge. Unfortunately, Bush's actions show that America is not in a prime position to preach to friends and foes about abuse of power (or democracy for that matter).
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