You are right about the power part (isn't that what we all really want?) but I don't think they hate him. I get the "he's irrelevant" message. He's too old, he's too orthodox, etc., etc. And so they try to dismiss him. Oddly, I hear this from mostly the religious or the ordained. I'll bet it goes for a lot of Cardinals and Bishops as well.
My own parish priest, who I like a lot and pray for a lot, told me last spring that we should pull away from Rome because they don't understand us (as Americans, I'm guessing).
I was thinking about twenty years ago when he was in him prime. Tell your priest that Rome "understands" us all too well.