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The Associated Press reports:

In remarks at the White House, Obama argued that recalcitrant lawmakers need to get behind his approach, saying the American people embraced his ideas when they elected him president in November.

Sadly, it will likely take more than Hope (TM) to disband Congress and crown us an emperor, the results of November's presidential election notwithstanding. Sure, Obama counters, you can dissent--it'll just be "a catastrophe." It's the President's prerogative to call it like he sees it, but isn't such a disputable dire pronouncement pretty much exactly the excuse Democrats gave after the fact for having been deceived/forced into voting for the Patriot Act and the Iraq war against their self-proclaimed better separation-of-powers instincts? This sort of the-Executive-Branch-speaks-you-shut-up-and-follow routine must come as a disappointment to people like CNN anchor Jami Floyd, who lectured on the occasion of Barack Obama's visit to the Supreme Court scant weeks ago that:

Barack Obama knows what President Bush apparently does not—that ours is a constitutional system of government; that the president serves at the pleasure of the American public; that the rule of law applies to all Americans even our chief executive; and, that presidential powers do not give the president unlimited authority to undermine our Constitution. There are three branches of government, after all, and with good reason. The executive is just one of those. With today’s visit our next President signals that he will fully respect the role of the other two—the legislative, with whom he must work everyday to best serve the American people, and the judiciary to which we all must answer.

In fairness to President Obama, it would be easier to fully respect the legislative branch if they'd just go ahead and do what he says already. Hopefully it's a lesson the Supreme Court is taking to heart. Until then--aw, sorry Jami, looks like the Cult of the Presidency lives!

UPDATE: As she notes in the comments section (presuming it is her!), Floyd is actually a contributor to the AC360 blog and anchors her own show on trueTV ("Not Reality. Actuality.") I sincerely apologize for suggesting she might be a CNN anchor rather than an anchor for a reality television network who moonlights as a blogger for a certain silver-haired fox of a CNN anchor, which, as our most recent ex-president might say, is...awesome! With regard to the merits of working for both Al Gore and Hillary Clinton before becoming a journalist, however, Floyd is entirely on her own.