Snowden is a traitor. He has no moral courage. He should come home and go to prison. [View all]

[BlueCheese]

Fine. Suppose all that is true. Suppose John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and Dick Cheney are right about that.

Then what?

Does that mean the massive surveillance program that we now know exists is okay? That it's okay for the U.S. government to collect the record of every single phone call made within the U.S. or to another country? To search this metadata without meaningful judicial oversight? To lie to Congress about it when asked directly?

Does that make it okay for the government to sweep up as much Internet traffic entering and leaving the U.S. as possible, and keep the material it "inadvertently" collects on purely domestic communications?

In the end, what does it matter if Snowden is an angel or a devil? This issue if far greater than any one person, whether that person is Edward Snowden or Barack Obama. This is about what the government of a democracy should and should not be doing in relation to the people it ostensibly serves. This is about much more than personality. This is about our fundamental freedoms and liberties.