Oddly enough, it looks like * had much in common with

[spindrifter]

Niyazov, dead President-for-Life of Turkmenistan.

The Turkmenbashi
. ordering the construction of an ice palace near the capital in spite of Turkmenistan's
climate and pressing social needs, while * is conducting the never-ending war and is building
the biggest U.S. Embassy in Iraq that anyone short of Sam Walgreen could have imagined.
. Was the head of two branches of government and appoints the members of the judiciary--so guess what--
he has all three, while * decided to press the Unitary Executive, a massive power grab for his branch
at the expense of the others.
. banned news presenters from wearing make-up as Niyazov had difficulty telling male and female readers
apart, while * gives both male and female reporters a load of cr*p everytime he takes questions,
not discriminating (on the basis) of sex
. had private conversations are monitored by government informers, while * favored mining private telephone
conversations to uncover possible terrorists.
. All Turkmen people knew jokes about Türkmenbaşy, just as every American knows jokes about *.

On the other hand,
. in 2004, there was a leaflet campaign in the capital, Aşgabat, calling for the overthrow and trial of Niyazov. The authorities were unable to stop the campaign and the President responded by firing his interior minister and director of the police academy on national television.<10> He accused the minister of incompetence and declared: "I cannot say that you had any great merits or did much to combat crime," while *saw his popularity ratings plummet and only after resounding defeats of members of his party, sacrificed Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, but lavished his terrible performance with praise, just as he did with other croney-appointees who failed miserably in their public responsibilities.

Based on material about Saparmurat Niyazov at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov