In my previous diary, "How To Get Those Emails", I outlined the limitations of the claim of executive privilege. The facts also disprove Bush's assertion that only he can interpret the law (see signing statements).
The Supreme Court held in United States v. Richard Nixon that it not only has the power to rule a law invalid for conflictin with constitutional provisions, but also the power to decide how the Consitution limits the President's powers, that the Constitution provides for laws enforceable to a President, and that executive prilege does not apply to "demonstably relevant" evidence in criminal cases. Quoting Chief Justice Warren Burger:
"Neither the doctrine of separation of powers, nor the need for confidentiality of high-level communications, without more, can sustain an absolute, unqualified Presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances. The Presidential need for complete candor and objectivity from advisers calls for great deference from the courts. However, when the privilege depends solely on the broad, undifferentiated claim of public interest in the confidentiality of such conversations, a confrontation with other values arises."
In other words, the President is not the law as the theory of the unitary executive proclaims. The Supreme Court "says what the law is." Bush has to prove that revealing the missing emails would impair national security, or that by issuing a subpoena, the Legislative branch has stomped over the boundary line separating it from the other two branches.
But no matter. Bush considers himself the Law, the Decider, the Son King-In-Chief. He reminds me of the 1933 movie, Island of Lost Souls, where Charles Laughton plays Dr. Moreau, a riveting, psychopathic scientist experimenting in his laboratory on a remote island. He tries to create humans out of animals, but suceeds only in making unnatural creatures, neither man nor animal. His laboratory is known as the House of Pain.
He's been on the island a long time. The creatures have formed a miniature society where Moreau is worshipped as a god. They are kept in line by the Sayer of the Law, played by Bela Lugosi, who invokes prohibitions ("do not eat meat, do not spill blood") to keep the creatures in check.
Bush creates and surrounds himself with "Bushies", an unnatural mixture of mindless acolytes and fervent, Constitution-ignoring partisans. The Oval Office is the House of Pain, where Bush, Cheney and Rove cook up their strategies of world domination.
Unfortunately, our current Supreme Court has demonstrated its willingness to overthrow precedent in its ruling on "partial birth" abortion (also known "dilation and evacuation" by medical doctors) by outlawing a medical procedure without providing an exemption for a woman's health. (This is quite the activist court.) It's guesswork to know what side they'll come down on regarding the powers of the POTUS.