Tom Wheeler is having a bad week, and it's about to get worse. The Washington Post reports that Wheeler has already basically brushed off the president's request for stricter net neutrality regulation, which will only feed the partisan battle surrounding it.

But buried in the report is an amazing quote that shows the head of the Federal Communications Commission might have enjoyed spending some time in the Ancien Régime.

"I am an independent agency," Wheeler told them repeatedly, according to several officials.

If that statement looks familiar, that's because it's lifted from a 17th century French king:

"L'État, c'est moi" ("I am the state.") Attributed to Louis XIV

As it turns out, telecommunications industry lobbyists have delusions of grandeur just like monarchs.

It's good to be the king.