The points you make in this post, Glenn, are strong arguments that a Democratic president elected from the ranks of the Beltway elite will only continue to dance this minuet of human rights abuses and continuing destruction of the constitutional order. As one writer said in the comments section yesterday, this is a constitutional crisis. As I have repeatedly said in the past, this is the greatest constitutional crisis in the English speaking world since the English civil war in the seventeenth century, about a hundred and fifty years before the founding of the American Republic.

America needs an outsider to win the presidency this time, someone without the taint of corruption caused by beltway nihilism clinging to his clothing, someone decent and honorable. That is why I think Mike Huckabee could well win the presidency next year, despite the widespread revulsion of the American public at this administration and the Republican party. As you well know, Congress and the Democrats are held in contempt because of the sort of complicity in this administrations misdeeds you so eloquently outline in today's post.

This is why I say: Help us Obi-wan Huckabee, you are our only hope.

Joe, I am not as negative as you are about Huckabee. I do not believe he seeks to impose a religious test for office, but rather to seek support from a particular, and particularly large, religious constituency. I think it is as legitimate for him to do so as it is for a pro choice candidate to seek the support of pro choice voters.

Huckabee is no cretin. He is well read, intelligent,bold and innovative. His positions on scientific issues are likely to be nuanced and well balanced despite his Evangelical faith. He comes from a long tradition of compassionate Christians in public life. He is more like the Salvation Army than the Moral Majority in his approach, in my view.

Huckabee represents hope for America- the idea that an outsider can be elected to the presidency and restore some balance, some honor, and some integrity to American government, because, Joe, I agree with you, IT CAN HAPPEN HERE!

One of the things I have recently learned about is the severe legal constraints which have been imposed on members of Congress when dealing with classified material and/or laws and regulations dealing with them. If members of Congress can not freely discuss such issues, and serious policy issues arising from briefings among themselves, then Congressional oversight becomes functionally impossible. It is almost as bad as if the President could not be informed about the details of a program or its operation because of security concerns.

While I do not wish to defend Jay Rockefeller, the above situation seems appaling to me, Glenn, and I would appreciate knowing your views on it.

Are you truly surprised by any of this, Glenn?

Again I say, Help us Obi-wan Huckabee. You are our only hope. Only a Baptist pastor traditionalist conservative with the mindset of Edmund Burke and John Locke has any hope of rolling the trend towards executive authoritarianism back, as only a Nixon could go to China. Only such an outsider would even consider rolling executive branch power back. The beltway gang clearly want it.

Glenn, you rightly state that free speech is thriving in the United States, that Americans elect their leaders and that personal autonomy in private life remains substantial. But these rights now exist at the sufferance of the power elite, not as a matter of basic, inalienable constitutional legal right. We are one presidential decree away from the knock on the door at midnight by governmental authorites to silence those troublesome to the regime. We are almost back to the reality of the Tudor and early Stuart monarchs: the wrath of the prince is death!

As you write in today's post, Congress is complicit in these developments, but so are the Courts. For example, the decisions on the issue of standing and the common law doctrine of state secrets render it virtually impossible to litigate the legality of governmental actions in the public interest of maintaining the constitutional order. If I am wrong about this, please correct me.

Reform is needed. America needs a truly conservative president who believes in the enlightenment principles of John Locke and the political philosophy of Edmund Burke so as to reverse the trend towards executive branch authoritarianism you so ably document in your writings. Unfortunately, Bruce Fein is not running, but Mike Huckabee is.

Henry IV of France, on deciding to convert to Catholicism in the midst of the religious wars in that country, said that Paris was worth a mass. It is wise to elect a conservative presidential cndidate with tradtionalist social conservative views so as to restore constitutional government to America.

Help us Obi-wan Huckabee, you are our only hope.

Well, Glenn, as George Orwell said in ANIMAL FARM: All Animals are equal, some animals are more equal than others. Obviously Harry Reid does not believe in a no holds barred philosophy.

How many posts along this line are you going to write before you realize how great the need for reform truly is? I can hardly stand watching the desperate attempts by those who support the constitutional order to get even minimal support for the basic idea of the rule of law. No liberty of the average American can now be truly secure.