[Vigilanteman]

In an interview last May, Abourezk's lawyer, Todd Epp, said the Web site can criticize the former senator's views but does not have the right to call him a traitor to his country.

So by the lawyer's own convuluted reasoning, MoveOn.Org and the gang can criticize Bush's views but cannot call him a liar, warmonger, etc. Abourezk's one term in the senate was characterized by a noticeable tilt to the Arab Jew-hating lobby with whom he shares a common ancestry-- so much so that he didn't even bother to run for re-election in 1978.

[Grut]

...MoveOn.Org and the gang can criticize Bush's views but cannot call him a liar, warmonger, etc.

They can call him those things because there's no legal meaning to them; but there is to 'traitor'. A first-time bank robber isn't a 'felon' until he's been convicted of his felony and you could get into trouble for calling him one before the verdict, however guilty he may be. Likewise, a traitor isn't a 'traitor' until he's been convicted.

Anyway, some conservatives are inclined to use the word pretty freely, not to say wildly.