"When the original justification for a huge investment goes away, the huge investment finds another reason to live...The more money and work and time it takes to build something, the more power it accrues, and the more effort it takes to make it go away."

That should send shivers down the spines of every american when they think about the build up of the secret government, the DHS, and the surveillance grid. And its what Rachel Maddow concludes deftly in one of the most conservative arguments out there.

A proud lefty arguing for the constitution, traditions of government, and the founding fathers' intentions of the military in a frog-in-boiling-water type metaphor. Why didn't Glen Beck write this book? Because he's too busy checking for liberals hiding in his closet. Liberals like Maddow who just out-glen-becked him.

Which is what's so refreshing about Maddow - if you have a pulse and that pulse is delivering oxygen to something resembling a nervous system, she's too educated and reasonable to brush aside with any ease.