Fliers posted around Capitol Hill poke fun at EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. Pruitt is currently embroiled in controversy related to an apartment he rented from a Capitol Hill lobbyist for $50 a night, personnel issues at the EPA, and accusations of wasting taxpayer money. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- What does it mean to be an American?
For one thing, it means we don’t want a king or queen, and never have. We fought the American Revolution to establish that fact.
And our history shows we haven’t changed our minds.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was slapped down when he unconstitutionally tried to pack the Supreme Court with his cronies, and the constitution was changed in 1951 to make sure Roosevelt was the last president to serve more than two terms.
The courts reminded Bill Clinton that even a president can’t get away with perjury.
And both Richard Nixon and Barack Obama were humiliated when caught trying to get the IRS to do their political dirty work.
But all of these historical lessons and precedents seem to have gone right over the head of President Trump and his cronies.
Nothing sums up the president’s contempt for the notion of legal or moral constraints better than his boast that he could walk down Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody without consequence. Presidential mouthpiece Kellyanne Conway has actually said with a straight face that when the president does something, that makes it legal.
And now we’ve being treated to the spectacle of EPA chief Scott Pruitt, a man so arrogant he sees his publicly-funded budget as a private slush fund for his splurges on fancy travel and expensive gadgets.
I don’t know who these ersatz kings and queens think they are, but I do know what they’re not acting like – Americans.
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