BDS & The CIA

The crowd still suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome is all over the story about the CIA concealing the existence of some unspecified program from Congress, supposedly at the order of Dick Cheney. Here's the reliably laughable John Cole at Balloon Juice,

guess the extent of the criminality and the confirmation of Bush as puppet President is news...one analyst stated that the reason Washington is terrified to investigate this is because they know that so many laws were broken so flagrantly that any investigation will lead to the indictment of Bush and Cheney, and that, for obvious reasons, terrifies the Democrats (you can listen to that piece here). It would simply consume Washington and destroy Obama’s agenda

Left-wingers actually believe this stuff. But those not infected with BDS might point out a couple of problems with that sort of "analysis."

First off, the Bush administration did nothing clearly illegal. They had a legal argument for everything they did. You would never know that from reading anything on the left. Leftists and other Bush-haters love to pretend that the Bush administration committed all sorts of illegalities. They believe this so fervently that, as usual, they confuse their opinion for fact. But in actual fact, although the Bush adminstration operated in many legal gray areas and made various borderline decisions, there was no single action that was unquestionably illegal. That's why there won't be any prosecution of Bush or Cheney. Rational people understand that there just isn't any clearcut evidence of criminal actions, regardless of the screeching of the hysterical left.

Second, the CIA story in question clearly illustrates how BDS removes any ability to logically analyze things related to the Bush administration -- as if we needed another example. Right in the article, apparently ignored by BDS cases like Cole, we find the following:  

the language of the statute, the amended National Security Act of 1947, leaves some leeway for judgment, saying such briefings should be done “to the extent consistent with due regard for the protection from unauthorized disclosure of classified information relating to sensitive intelligence sources and methods or other exceptionally sensitive matters.”

For people who don't believe conspiracy theories about Dick Cheney being a criminal mastermind controlling a puppet president, the above quote seems to indicate that the failure to report a CIA program was not in fact illegal. Once again you have a statute with leeway for interpretation. Disagreeing with the judgment of the Bush administration, or hating Cheney with fanatical intensity doesn't make something illegal.