Last weekend we enjoyed watching on C-SPAN when Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) abruptly adjourned a House Judiciary Committee hearing on renewal of the Patriot Act. The issue that day was the fact that Democrats and their utopian friends from Amnesty International, et.al., wanted to hold forth endlessly on conditions at Guantanamo Bay, not talk to specifics of the Patriot Act itself.
The controversy continues as some on the Right join forces with their usual enemies on the Left to try and derail the Act's renewal. Paranoia runs deep.
Conservative groups have found common ground with the liberal American Civil Liberties Union in their opposition to the USA Patriot Act and pledge to wage a high-profile fight against it, claiming even its renewal is shrouded in secrecy.Posted by Alan at June 14, 2005 06:25 AMFormer Rep. Bob Barr, who led conservative efforts to impeach President Clinton, is leading a group called "Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances" that is focused exclusively on opposing the renewal of the Patriot Act.
The effort also has the enthusiastic support of three of the most influential conservatives in Washington, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, David Keene of the American Conservative Union and Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum.
But not all conservatives agree with some of the movement's biggest names. The Heritage Foundation has given its full-throated support to Mr. Bush's version of the law.
"Bob Barr is going to cast aspersions that only true conservatives think ill of the Patriot Act," said Paul Rosenzweig, a senior legal research fellow at Heritage. "I'll put it this way: Ronald Reagan would be for the Patriot Act. And I know that because his former attorney general, Ed Meese, is for the Patriot Act."
Mr. Rosenzweig said the Patriot Act "has all the checks and balances on police authority that has been around for years," and that its greatest feature is how it allows intelligence agents and the FBI to share the intelligence they gather.
"That is absolutely essential," Mr. Rosenzweig said. "Everyone realizes that except for Bob Barr."