IN THE WORDS OF HIS AVATAR, "WHAT I DO, NOT WHAT I SAY":

Following Bush's Playbook: Despite what Obama told liberals, he is embracing some once-hated policies (Rick Santorum, April 23, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer)

As a candidate, Obama attacked President George W. Bush's invocation of the "state secrets privilege," which allows an administration to refuse to disclose information in court on national-security grounds. Obama's campaign Web site claimed the Bush administration "ignored public disclosure rules and has invoked a legal tool known as the 'state secrets' privilege more than any other previous administration. ..."

But less than a month into the new administration, Obama's Justice Department relied on the state secrets doctrine to argue for dismissal of an ACLU suit over Boeing's transportation of prisoners to countries where they were allegedly tortured.

Obama's erstwhile supporters threw a fit. Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, complained that "candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama's Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on that important civil-liberties issue."

Not to be deterred, the Justice Department has invoked the state secrets doctrine once again in Jewel v. NSA. The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it's suing the National Security Agency and other agencies "on behalf of AT&T customers to stop the illegal, unconstitutional, and ongoing dragnet surveillance of their communications and communications records." A recent foundation press release was headlined, "Obama administration embraces Bush position on warrantless wiretapping and secrecy."

But why did such a liberal president turn against the left on this? Here's the answer from his Justice Department: "An examination ... determined that attempting to address the allegations in this case could require the disclosure of intelligence sources and methods that are used in a lawful manner to protect national security. The administration cannot risk the disclosure of information that could cause such exceptional harm to national security."

Allow me to translate the Beltway-speak: Obama's new intelligence team told him he would have to be out of his mind to turn over the nation's most sensitive secrets to his friends at the ACLU and other radical, left-wing lawyers.