Demagogue

Excerpts from an interview with Vice President Cheney that will air tonight on ABC's "World News Tonight":

ABC's Terry Moran: "... The president has now acknowledged authorizing and reauthorizing, more than 30 times, a program to spy on Americans without any warrant from any court. This is a huge change."

Cheney: "I think that's a slight distortion of what the president said. The president said — is that we will use all of our power and authority — the decision we made after 9/11 — to do everything we can to defend the country. That's our obligation. We take an oath of office to do that."

ABC's Terry Moran: "That's not in dispute. "

Cheney: "And that when we have a situation where we have communication between someone inside the U.S. and an acknowledged al Qaeda or terrorist source outside the U.S., that that's something we need to know. ..."

ABC's Terry Moran: "But, Mr. Vice President, this is a program that surveilles people inside the United States. The Constitution— "

Cheney: "Who are in touch with al Qaeda who are outside the United States."

So if Cheney insists that the surveillance program is only being used for people "in touch with al Qaeda," is he trying to tell us that this college student was an al Qaeda operative?

In Cheney's world, someone whose words or actions are being monitored by the feds must, by definition, be a terrorist.