(Somewhere in Northern Virginia) - It's happening again: the CIA is being spayed.

It happens every time a "progressive' president gets into office. Administrations which have weaseled their way into public power, say they hate the secrecy, ignoring the fact that such private knowledge is needed to maintain a good spy system. These giant rhodent-like creatures (extinct theriodonts are amazingly similar), whom we call Progressives, actually love secrecy as long as they can use the information to their benefit (insert Jimmy Carter here.)

They love secrecy so much, that they have, since 1964, created a separate CIA culture, dedicated only to them. How else explain the Valerie Plame gambit?

Now, we have Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, who's ego is only outstripped by her ignorance. She told a big fat lie when she said she was not told the truth about water-boarding, that curious interrogation practice which gives great results and leaves no marks. EVERYBODY knows she lied. But, like a bad French tragedy, she continues the ruse that she actually told the truth, now saying the CIA lied.

Her immasculated minions in the House are currently writing accusatory letters to a listening political hack, Leon Panetta, who now heads the very demoralized institution. If they succeed in getting Panetta to lie, to cover the Speaker, you can bet that the CIA will go back to its Jimmy Carter condition where no chances will be taken and no information will be obtained.

Of the thousands of people who read this column every week, I know there are, at least, two - who are an extreme rarety - patriotic Progressives. They know that in order to maintain a fierce and reliable defense force, reliable espionage is a must. They will tell you so.

That being the case, a question the rest of us would have for these two patriots might be this: How do we define "espionage?"

Frank Herbert, in his excellent Dune science fiction series, has one of his characters proclaim that deception is a valid tool of warfare. The argument for this point of view is self-evident. You cannot let your enemy know what you're doing and you must know what your enemy is doing.

The problem is that the Johnsonites, the Carterinos, The Clintonistas, and the Obamicans only believe in one side of the equation. They equate righteousness with revelation. They have to FEEL good about their actions, rather than be comforted by the logic of their actions. AND, they are not willing to believe that a tortured enemy is worth any living American.

We know that the proposition which says torture does not work is false. We have several proofs that this proposition is false. But facts have never been the friends of "progressives." Man-made global warming, manipulated markets, Keynesian stimuli, and smooth evolution are all dependent on fantasy and yet are at the basis of every progressive belief structure.