Making Conservatives Cringe Since 1977

In 1755, Benjamin Franklin observed that “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Our belief in the primacy of individual liberty makes America unique and keeps us strong. This principle is eternal, and should be applied always consistently during times of prosperity and want, and times of war and peace.

Establishing reasonable standards of evidence and allowing judicial review of subpoenas and “gag orders” does not threaten anyone’s security; but, these allowances will ensure that civil liberties are protected and maintained today and in the future. It may not be a politically popular stand, but it is one that I believe our country’s Founders would very much understand.

Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.)

Many of my regular readership--however small and humble their number maybe--may do a double take at the title of this post, but I believe the above statements would ring true from whatever quarter it had been issued. However, others have characterized Senator Sununu’s bi-partisan efforts to ensure the inherent checks and balances established by our Founding Fathers as a hindrance to prosecuting The War Against Terror Global The Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism The War on Islamo-Fascism.

Sununu, Feingold, and others who’ve joined this fight for our civil liberties have repeatedly made it clear that they are not in favor of gutting the act of the most vital law enforcement tools the law provides, but simply extending the act so that further debate upon essential safeguards for our freedoms can continue. A significant number of Republicans oppose this debate, so much so that they would rather see the act expire than be modified in any form, to the detriment of the varied law enforcement agencies that rely on the most pertinent parts of The Patriot Act. Although it has been noted, “The expiration of the law isn't likely to immediately hamper terror investigations,” and that “Federal authorities may still use the existing law to complete probes initiated before the end of the year and launch new investigations using the old act for crimes committed before Dec. 31,” a time will come when the very roadblocks between agencies such as the CIA and FBI that contributed the failures of the “Able Danger” program could arise again.

Simply put, in the Senators own words, "They haven't provided any substantive example of how that judicial review would weaken law enforcement's ability... I support an extension - three months, six months, so that we can work out these differences... We should deal with this like adults."

posted by Frederick  # 12/19/2005 09:18:00 PM