Huey P. Putin

Just one man, a king

“No man has ever been president of the United States more than two terms. You know that; everyone knows that. But when I get in, I’m going to abolish the Electoral College, have universal suffrage, and I defy any sonofabitch to get me out in under four terms.”

—Huey P. Long, 1933

THE NIGHT he was assassinated in Baton Rouge, the Kingfish—Huey Pierce Long Jr.—was steering the legislative ship to remove an old enemy from the judicial ranks in Louisiana. Why a sitting United States senator would be in a state capital attending to such matters is easily explained: In his time, Huey P. Long ran Louisiana.

His seat of power was a nice title, but preferably it helped gain a greater one in the next election. He was the Kingfish. The boss. And if he had to get around term limits to hold off the anti-Longs in New Orleans and Baton Rouge—even holding two offices on occasion—why, that just made for good political theater. Which the voters of Louisiana ate up like everything else down there. Gov./Sen. Long once had the state capitol’s roof tiles removed over the seat of one persnickety lawmaker so it rained on his desk every afternoon.

When you’re a boss with powerful enemies, and one with iffy principles at that, you need to hold onto power. If the anti-Longs ever took over while Huey was around and still alive, they might have put him behind bars. After all, when every single state employee has to kick back part of his salary to the political operation, somebody might talk. (Once when a fresh reporter asked him about the climate of corruption in his administration, Huey Long blew up: At least Louisiana had good roads! Other states had graft, too, but where were the roads?)

Another dictator, also with leftward political leanings and a disregard for term limits, and with fingerprints all over the local oil industry and a thirst for power that rivals even the Kingfish, made international news again this week.

Vladimir V. Putin, boss of the new Russia, same as the old Russia, wants to suspend the laws in the former USSR so he can run for president again. His supporters in the Duma, if they know what’s good for them, would change the law, or at least “suspend” it so the clock stops running for Vladimir Putin. Such a change would allow him to remain tsar until 2036.

Vladimir Vladimirovich has already been in power for more than 20 years, the longest-serving leader of Russia since Uncle Joe Stalin. That includes when he allowed Dmitry Medvedev—the O.K. Allen of Russia—to serve as a placeholder in the president’s chair until quaint matters, like the law, were ironed out.

Of course, protocol must be followed. So the once and future president of Russia told lawmakers this week that the nation’s Constitutional Court must judge the move acceptable. Few people think the justices will buck the former KGB spy currently in high office. They know what’s good for them, too. But the illusion of democracy must be held firm. Besides, Mr. Putin has high approval numbers in his country.

“I am sure a time will come when supreme presidential power in Russia will not be, so to speak, personalized so much and will not be centered on one particular person,” Vladimir Putin told his lawmakers this week.

And: “A man is not a dictator when he is given a commission from the people and carries it out.”

Oops. That last statement was from another politician. An American one. In the 1930s.