WHAT DAVID BRODER DOESN'T UNDERSTAND

In his column that argues against holding the people who authorize torture to account, he writes this:

Cheney is not wrong when he asserts that it is a dangerous precedent when a change in power in Washington leads a successor government not just to change the policies of its predecessors but to invoke the criminal justice system against them.

The REAL dangerous precedent is having rabid ideologues like David Addington and John You anywhere near the Executive Branch. Broder seems to be unaware of how extreme the GOP "mainstream" has become and I think he implies that politics justifies violating the Constitution because he worries about "a major, bitter partisan battle over prosecution of Bush-era officials," seemingly unaware of the current GOP fear campaign ("death panels") against health care reform.