Remember when dissent was patriotic?  When people like Hillary Clinton screeched that "we have a right to disagree with any administration?" Forget about it.  That's so, like, 2003. You know, when George W. Bush was President.  

Things are different today.  Now, criticizing a sitting president is wrong. Very wrong.  Just ask Joe Scarborough, who on today's Morning Joe accused Leon Panetta of a "lack of character" for criticizing President Obama in his book and public appearances.

Scarborough pounded Panetta in a segment discussing Peggy Noonan's newest column in which she too took Panetta to task.  Sorry, Joe and Peggy.  If someone in a position to know believes a president is taking the country down a dangerous path that compromises our national security, sitting silently is no virtue.  Such a person has not just the right, but the obligation, to speak out before it's too late.

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Seriously, this is just unbecoming of a supposed quote wise man. I can't imagine -- I personally cannot imagine me undercutting a Commander-in-Chief that I worked for as Secretary of Defense with a tell-all book in a time of war. I can't imagine it. It shows a lack of discretion, I think, at least. But, unfortunately, more likely it shows a lack of discretion I think, at least.  But unfortunately, more likely, it shows a lack of character. And to do it again, I will say and perhaps one of the most critical times for our Commander-in-Chief in our country -- I mean hell I've been critical of Barack Obama almost non-stop from the beginning of his administration for a lot of different reasons. Because these are such serious times, I have given him the benefit of the doubt as Commander-in-Chief in this time of crisis. I can't imagine being a Secretary of Defense for the man leaving and then profiting by writing a tell-all book in these times.