President Bush has shown plenty of strong leadership over the last seven years, as amply demonstrated by FEMA trailers, TSA screening, Guantanamo, and warrantless wiretaps. And he already has a strong, comprehensive national energy policy whose centerpiece is permanent involvement in the Iraqi civil war that he created. The spectacular profits of Halliburton and Exxon-Mobil attest to its undeniable success. So there’s no need for the President to bother Congress with anything, especially since he has given himself the unilateral power to ignore or modify anything Congress does in his signing statements.

This leadership has worked well for seven years. So what makes Mr. Crandall think the President will try anything different at the end of a spectacularly successful term in office?