"Cliché."

Michael Isikoff and Hugh Hewitt had an interesting discussion on Faisal Shahzad, the American citizen apparently behind the Times Square bombing plot. Halfway through, Hewitt inadvertently gives what amounts to the conservative capsule view of due process:

MI: And he waived, and he waived his Miranda rights. Look, there probably will be a discussion of this. But all I’m saying is we are still a country of laws. You can’t just make it up as you go along.

HH: But that’s cliché.

MI: And you know, maybe…

HH: That’s just cliché. We’re a country of laws. I know that. I teach it.

Yes, a cliché authored by John Adams. Funny how the conservative reverence for the country's founding fathers so often stops just short of defending the principles these men stood for.