The important thing to remember is that even if Dick Cheney was telling the truth about top Democrats being aware of illegal surveillance and torture programs, that in no way makes those programs constitutional or even acceptable. It may mean that some Democrats are hypocrites, and that they used the Bush Administration's implementation of controversial policies to gain a political advantage, but it doesn't bear at all on whether those programs should continue.
Instead it reveals the importance of making sure that unconstitutional policies are not being implemented in backrooms under a cloak of secrecy, precisely because either party is capable of abusing its power. It makes Cheney's understanding of the vice president's office as the seat of imperial power in the United States even less palatable. Spencer Ackerman has the right idea: The fact that there may have been a bi-partisan agreement to violate the Constitution doesn't make those violations acceptable.
--A. Serwer
