This article has to be read in the vaunted, ValueJudgment "Thank you for your advice, my dear opponent" mode -- but the facts the author uses to buttress his perspective are interesting. David Keene calls Wes Clark's new patriotism "political balderdash" and points out a collaboration, of sorts, with Poindexter in The Hill.

Clark has declared his support for a “new patriotism” and the creation of an America in which people needn’t fear speaking out regardless of their views. Some civil libertarians hearing the man might be forgiven for marveling at the very idea of a career military man running on issues near and dear to their hearts. Sounds great, but it is political balderdash.

General Wesley Clark is no more a civil libertarian than Retired Rear Adm. John Poindexter. The only difference between the two, in fact, may be that Poindexter is far more honest in his dismissal of civil libertarian concerns.

[...] It turns out that Clark was a quiet and well-compensated early supporter of Poindexter’s scheme. It was the Clark who brought the Pentagon a company called Acxiom that is based in Little Rock and is in the business of collecting and managing data on you and me. The general, it seems, serves on Acxiom’s board and was eager for the company be hired to do its thing for the Pentagon. It was and it was Acxiom that recently made the news when it was discovered that officials at JetBlue Airways, in violation of their own privacy policies, had turned over personal information on millions of its passengers to the company for inclusion in the work it is doing for the Pentagon.