Henry got rid of both unwanted wives and political enemies through elaborately staged show trials that were travesties of justice. Bush and Gonzales have tried to replicate the political enemies part, to be sure. Ask Don Siegelman about that.

Bush famously (or maybe not as famously as should have been) made a statement during his first term “humorously” lamenting that his powers were far more limited than they would be in an authoritarian regime.

Now we know he was very serious about that lament. He really did want near-absolute powers. Wonder if he has a bust of Henry VIII in the Oval Office? He’s got one of Churchill, who’s probably turning over in his grave about it. Churchill, as conservative as he was, still was big on the rule of law and democratic process.

Seems Bush has joined the Tudors in an old, and long-discredited, tradition of perverting the rule of law in favor of personal rule.