Not my own prose, you understand, but still, it's pretty snappy stuff. The author was a fellow named Shakespeare, and he was putting words into the mouth of Roman politician and general Marc Antony concerning the late Julius Caesar.

This Caesar was a pretty formidable character who happened to have very little use for the Roman Senate. Oh, he made a show of respecting the institution, but basically he would just announce his decisions and then have them entered into the official record without any debating or voting by the senators.

Remind you of anybody?

Full of hubris fueled by a rubber-stamp Republican Congress, when President Bush decided to spy on American citizens, he didn't feel the need to go through all the legal folderol of getting warrants from the judiciary.

Then when his administration entered into the politically disastrous Dubai ports deal, it was news to Congress, which was supposed to study the agreement for 45 days.

Of course, in all fairness, it was also news to the president, who said he found out about it all by watching TV.

Still, once so informed, Bush stubbornly threatened a veto of any legislation that would scotch the deal ... until he was told by his party's leaders that they would vote to override any veto.

That's how we do things now, with the only threats being political embarrassment, which is much, much better than what the senators in Caesar's time did.

Encouraged no doubt by wearing togas convenient for concealing daggers — and by a lack of metal detectors — Roman senators stabbed Caesar at least 23 times, thus putting an end to his administration, not to mention his life.

Things were tough for emperors back in Roman days. If they weren't getting poisoned by their wives, they were getting strangled in their bathtubs by athletes or murdered by their own guards.

That sort of thing, of course, is rightfully frowned upon in these enlightened times, but still, a president is wise to keep the boys and girls in the legislature from turning on him.

It seems that each day there's a new poll with the same headline: 'President Bush's Approval Rating Hits New Low.' The nonpartisan Pew Research Center national survey released Wednesday had only 33 percent of Americans approving Bush's job performance.

Those and similar numbers haven't been lost on many Republicans in Congress, who — during Bush's 70 percent approval days right after 9/11 — used to body-check each other trying to get their photos taken with the president.

Now, they couldn't pick the prez out of a police lineup.

Any day, I expect to hear a Republican in a tough 2006 congressional race deny his party's leader more emphatically than Peter denied Jesus.

'Gee ... let me see .... President Bush, huh? Short, stocky guy? Bald, walks with a limp?'

Uhhh .... no.

Not that the Democrats are any better. For the last five years most of them have been wagging their tails, covering their eyes with their paws and hoping the president would scratch them behind the ears.

Now, they're trying to link every Republican candidate from senator to dog catcher to the increasingly unpopular commander-in-chief.

The ancient Romans would feel very much at home.

Remember earlier this year when Bush nominated presidential counselor Harriet Miers to be a Supreme Court justice?

The Roman Emperor Caligula, who ruled from A.D. 37-41, considered nominating his horse, Incitatus, to be a consul, one of the republic's highest offices.

Ask anyone who has met a lawyer and a horse and you will no doubt be told that the latter is far more trustworthy. But neither nomination became a reality.

Caligula's immediate predecessor, Tiberius, who ruled from 14 to 37, referred to the Senate as 'men fit to be slaves.'

When Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and other Gulf areas, Bush hung out at his Texas ranch, not wanting to interrupt his vacation.

In A.D. 64, the Emperor Nero was accused of playing his fiddle while Rome burned.

And then we have Augustus Caesar, who after taking the measure of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, succeeded Julius Caesar in B.C. 31. Augustus ruled Rome when 20,000 soldiers died after legions under Varus were ambushed in the Germanic Teutoburger Forest.

Augustus sent 50,000 more troops to conquer the German tribes but never quite got it done. In A.D. 14, Augustus' last words were purported to be, 'Varus, give me back my legions!'

President Bush will never get back the more than 2,300 American lives he has lost in an ill-advised Iraq adventure, and he stubbornly insists our troops will be there for as long as it takes.

'The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.'

It's as true today for George W. Bush as it ever was for Julius Caesar.

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Sam Pollak is editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar.com or at (607) 432-1000, ext. 208.