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John Ashcroft, the predecessor of Alberto Gonzales and former title holder of “Craziest Attorney General since John Mitchell” has an op-ed piece in today’s NY Times. In it he argues that the telecommunication companies who provided access for the Bush administration’s illegal wiretaps should be held immune from lawsuits.

As he says, “Whatever one feels about the underlying intelligence activities or the legal basis on which they were initially established, it would be unfair and contrary to the interests of the United States to allow litigation that tries to hold private telecommunications companies liable for them.”

I can see his point. Because if the administration can blithely get away with breaking the law, why shouldn’t the companies who helped the do it get away with it too? It wouldn’t be fair to stick them with the blame just because they didn’t listen to their mother when she said, “Well, just because George or Dick or John or Alberto jumps off the bridge, that doesn’t mean you have to jump off the bridge, too.”

It’s easy to see why Ashcroft is advocating the immunity. After all, since leaving the Attorney General’s office, he’s made his living as a consultant—and op-ed writer—for, you guessed it, telecom companies.

But, whatever his motives, I’m going to have to agree with him on this one, although not for the reasons he cites. No, revealing procedures of our intelligence community during the discovery process is not the most dangerous possible outcome of these lawsuits. (I mean, c’mon, do you think the guys who outed Valerie Plame really give a damn about that?) Not granting immunity from lawsuits to the telecoms is far more dangerous than letting the lawsuits proceed for the reason that this suit would inevitably end up in the Supreme Court.

Imagine what would happen there. If you can’t, let me help you. What if the Court decided that it’s alright for people to break black-letter law if the president says so? Because if it came to that, that’s the only logical way to let the telecoms off the legal hook.

And if we had the highest court deciding that it’s okay to break the law, pretty soon we’re gonna be hearing things like “Freedom is Slavery” or “War is Peace” or “Ignorance is Strength.”

It’s not that far fetched. After all, Big Brother is already watching.