“Virtually treason” is the phrase Congressman Darrell Issa is using to describe the alleged spying on the Congress that was done by the Central Intelligence Agency. The chairman of the House Oversight Committee is quoted by Breitbart.com as saying that he shares the outrage of Senator Feinstein, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

“I think the violation of the Constitutional separation of powers should be an offense of the highest level — virtually treason,” Mr. Issa told Breitbart. “Spying on the executive branch — spying on Congress or violating the separation of powers as to the Supreme Court or as to Congress is effectively treason. Treason — it’s written up in the Constitution.”

This kind of talk drives us to drink — in this case, we’ve just taken yet another swig of our favorite hard liquor, which was bottled in 1787 at Philadelphia and is being hawked under the label of “Original Intent.” And let us just say, you don’t want to exhale after drinking this stuff, not if you’re going light a match at the same time. What it says about treason is . . .

Well, let us just say that this is what it says. It says that neither Darrell Issa nor any other member of Congress, nor even the whole body of the Congress, nor even the Supreme Court, none of them may define treason against the United States as consisting in anything other than “levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

What that means is that poking around the Senate’s computers isn’t treason, nor is spying for Israel (a point we’ve made in editorials about Jonathan Pollard) nor is leaking to hostile Web sites (“Wikileaks and Treason”), to name but two of what must be a dozen or more editorials we have issued about treason. One can criticize our government in a time of war, one can even say nice things about our enemy. To be a traitor, however, one must either levy war or adhere to our enemies, actually giving them both aid and comfort.

Why do we keep making that point? It’s the confounded “Original Intent.” It just gets into you, and ain’t it the elixir of liberty, too. We don’t mean to suggest that spying on the Senate isn’t a serious violation, particularly for our own intelligence agencies. Just not treason, virtual or otherwise. So to Mr. Issa, let us just say, “The next time you’re in Philadelphia, stop by the Founders’ Saloon and ask for a shot of ‘Original Intent.’ You can tell them the Sun sent you.”