"Many days I'm frustrated with the left, but other days, as so many Dems are excited to see indictments under laws meant to protect the CIA from exposure of its crimes, I realize I still can't shake that leftist heart."
Maybe this just goes to show why I'm now a mere liberal, but it seems like you don't even mention (much less address) the hard questions. E.g. you're right that transparency is fundamental to democracy, but spying obviously and necessarily requires a partial lack of tranparency. Any framework for intelligence work will have to strike a delicate and uneasy balance between disclosure and efficacy.
Even if the laws Rove et al. broke are in need of amendment, we shouldn't feel bad about wanting to see them burn: their violations didn't exactly constitute civil disobediance. Progressives who excoriate Rove haven't forgotten just how bad the CIA has been at times, and they're not overlooking the need for oversight and accountability.
-- Luke