The first line of his column displays what a complete moron the author is. I am reminded of a quote by William F. Buckley, in which he responded to an equally inane statement with: "I would not insult your intelligence by suggesting that you actually believe the statement you just made."
Either Froomkin actually believes the first line of his column -- in which case he is a complete idiot who hasn't paid attention to any of the discourse between the President and the democrats in congress for the last 8 years -- OR he knows that it is a complete falsehood but wrote it anyway -- in which case he is a bald-faced LIAR.
'Fraid so, i.e. he believes it and is, therefore, an idiot. Later in the article he described Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington, as "deputy puppet-master"...
And his idea of executive powers (many of which Bill Clinton conceded to Congress and courts by exerting frivolous executive privilege claims in his personal criminal matters) is pre-9/11 :
"President Bush's drive for the greatest expansion in executive power since the Nixon era..."
and
"Yet that hardly means that he has been pushed all the way back to Sept. 10, 2001."
Then he extensively quotes a lawyer for one of Gitmo detainees " via the ACLU ... Frakt's extraordinary closing argument" as a "scathing indictment against the president of the United States".
I'd say this is difficult to come up with on a whim if one doesn't really feel it and believes it. My bet would be on idiot.