Does a War on Terror Excuse Domestic Spying?

Gonzales, Cheney, Bush and the rest of the gang have been defending themselves for getting caught doing domestic spying. Their claim runs something like this:

We are at war on terror. The president must protect the citizens of America by all available means. If this means ignoring the Bill of Rights, then that's the price you pay for security during war time.

This claim is completely bogus. I would like to point out a few facts to W. (I beginning to believe that "W" must stand for "Whiney".)

Recently, the United States was involved in a little something called "The Cold War." In fact, this war heated up in a few places like Cuba, Hungary, Korea, and Vietnam.

Suppose that Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon et al used the fact that we were fighting a war, a cold war, against a dangerous enemy, as a pretext to sweep aside civil liberties and spy on domestic citizens? Don't you suppose that a few of us, this side of Joe McCarthy, might be a little bit concerned about the actions and the excuses for it?

So far, the Cold War has claimed more American lives than has the War on Terror. But we won it without the need to trash the Bill of Rights.