It is all about "THE DIVINE RIGHT of the Executive Branch", as argued by Rep.Dick Cheney, (R.Wy), when he was Co-Vice Chair of the Congressional IRAN-CONTRA Hearings, who in his closing remarks said: “In my opinion, there's no justification for further restrictions on the power and flexibility of future Presidents.” His was the only opinion of the four chairmen and vice-chairmen that failed to perceive the grave danger the Iran-Contra affair placed our Constitution in.

Reading these summary statements from more than 20 years ago is in a way almost like reading today’s news: "Iran-Contra Hearings: Summing up a Summer’s Work; Final Remarks by Leaders of the Panels: A Litany of Mistakes.” NYT, Aug. 4, 1987. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D91639F937A3575BC0A961948260

On July 9, 2007, historian Sean Wilentz wrote in the NYT [Op-Ed “Mr. Cheney’s Minority Report”]:

“[…] Mr. Cheney the congressman believed that Congress had usurped executive prerogatives. He saw the Iran-contra investigation not as an effort to get to the bottom of possible abuses of power but as a power play by Congressional Democrats to seize duties and responsibilities that constitutionally belonged to the president. […]”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/opinion/09wilentz.html?pagewanted=print

[Cheney was not alone in his megalomania. Read about Michael Ledeen and his ideas:

Here is the 1985 NYT Book review of his ”Grave New World”, by William Griffith [The author of “The Superpowers and Regional Tensions”]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9807EFDF153BF93AA25756C0A963948260&sec=&pagewanted=all

He wrote: “The Founding Fathers rightly distrusted the sort of strong executive for which Mr. Ledeen so longs.” ]

Cheney was asked to find a Vice-Presidential candidate for GWB in 1999…the person he came up with was…himself.

Bush and the Cheney-Gang wasted no time in implementing their vision of The Unitary Executive and World Domination:

January 22, 2002-Department of Justice writes “Memorandum for Alberto O. Gonzales, Counsel to the President, and William J. Haynes II, General Counsel of the Department of Defense”. It begins: “You have asked for our Office's views concerning the effect of international treaties and federal laws on the treatment of individuals detained by the U.S. Armed Forces during the conflict in Afghanistan. […]” The Memo was signed by Jay Bybee. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB127/02.01.22.pdf

January 25, 2002 - Alberto Gonzales [then the White House counsel, he is now (2006) the Attorney General, sent a memo to President Bush arguing for a “new paradigm” of interrogation, declaring that the war on terror “renders obsolete” the “strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners” required by the Geneva conventions, which were ratified by the United States in 1955. (O) "In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." […] your policy of providing humane treatment to enemy detainees gives us the credibility to insist on like treatment for our soldiers." (RR) (DD) [See also August 1, 2002] [For information about John Yoo’s testimony, see (DD), pg. xvi]

http://www.webdsi.com/jebbie/timeline.html