"Dissent = thoughtcrime" say Cheney, Frist, McClellan, Rove, Hannity

Glenn Greenwald has a terrific post pointing out how desperate the administration's defenses of its warrantless domestic spying program are:

It is a potent reflection of how little the White House can say in response to the accusation that the President broke the law that they can respond only by: (a) flagrantly and dishonestly distorting the argument against it (by pretending that this is about whether we should eavesdrop on Al Qaeda), or (b) accusing those who protest the President's law-breaking of committing treason.

The administration isn't making these ad hominem attacks, and the ludicrous arguments of authorization by the AUMF or Commander in Chief clause of the Constitution, because they want to. They are making these attacks and arguments because their yearning to keep the program secret failed, and these flimsy excuses and accusations are the best plan B they can come up with.