Leon Panetta defends dictatorship

Glenn Greenwald rips into the Democrats' fake concern for Constitutional rights. With one of their own in the White House, Panetta (and many other Democrats) say it's just fine that the Commander-in-Chief wields all the dictatorial powers, and then some, that W and Cheney claimed:

But this is one of the towering, unanswerable hypocrisies of Democratic Party politics. The very same faction that pretended for years to be so distraught by Bush’s mere eavesdropping on and detention of accused Terrorists without due process is now perfectly content to have their own President kill accused Terrorists without due process, even when those targeted are their fellow citizens...

Whoa! Panetta, a liberal Democrat from the Clinton administration, now clicks his heels and defends the president's power to call legal hits at will?

Sure. As George Will recently observed, "progressives" have always longed to forge a nation where the citizens march "in lock step, shoulder to shoulder, obedient to orders from a commanding officer." All in the name of "progress," you see.

But that's the role of liberalism in the DC Empire - it gussies up brute power with a facade of noble intentions. What I once wrote about the Bush regime is just as true about Obama:

With Communist egalitarianism and Nazi economics, Neo-Conism avoids the flaws (racism, planned economy) while appropriating the strengths (universalism, mercantilism, and really good citizen surveillance) of both totalitarian systems. Combining the world's largest economy and the world's noblest ideals, Bush's USA is the most powerful force the planet has ever seen.

And ... the greatest threat to our liberty and security, as Leon Panetta just admitted.