THE CORRECT ATTITUDE ON SNOWDEN: “I doubt everything.”

As I wrote when the story was new, “There’s a good chance that even Snowden doesn’t really know who he’s working for. Bear that in mind.” For all we know he may be a catspaw in an elaborate scheme to get disinformation, or malware, into Chinese or Russian intelligence. (Or for all he knows).

As Rep. Frank Underwood comments, sagely: “What a martyr craves more than anything is a sword to fall on. So you sharpen the blade, hold it at just the right angle, and…3,2,1… #Snowden.” But then, he’s fictional himself.

And none of this has much to do with whether we think the NSA spying program can be trusted not to be abused — except that, if Snowden really is an anti-American traitor, well, then, the NSA, which put him in this position, doesn’t look like it’s up to the job of policing itself.