Why Conservatives Should Shut the Fuck Up About Prosecuting the New York Times for "Leaking" Sensitive Material in the War on Terror

The NY Sun's Eli Lake–a conservative hisself–lays into cons who think the NY Times has acted treasonously by reporting on gov't efforts in the WOT:

It was bad enough when the left argued for the erosion of press freedoms, but it's incoherent for conservatives to go down this road. Conservatives are supposed to be skeptical about unchecked power for the federal government. It is one of the principles that binds together a coalition of home-schoolers, federalists, gun owners, and tax cutters—the view that while the federal government may be necessary, its power should be checked at every available opportunity.

The Sun is subscription-only (alas) but much more of Lake's col, along with a very useful framing by Robert A. George is available at George's Ragged Thots blog here. As George–a New York Post columnist, self-described "Catholic, West Indian Black Republican," and occasional Reason contributor–puts it:

The need for vigilance on official action is even greater precisely because the war on terror is an open-ended enterprise which threatens to become an indefinite semi-permanent status quo. Such a state is inherently incompatible with the principles that underscore a constitutional republic based on limitations of executive power.