Rand Paul on Patriot Act – Filibuster or Farce ?

• Rand Paul says he is”filibustering”  reauthorization of the Patriot Act
• Says action forces debate, but does after hours stand-up even delay vote?
  
• Sightings of pigs flying — TEA Party Patriots, ACLU and NAACP join forces to publicly oppose Patriot Act extension
• McConnell pushing bill to reauthorize Patriot Act as is
• Paul endorsed Mitch for Senate, Mitch endorses Paul for President (and greases the cake pan in Kentucky)
  
• Mitch McConnell pushes to end filibuster of  Fast Track (Trans Pacific Partnership) trade deal

Rand Paul sent this memo to his e-mail subscribers yesterday:

As you read this, I will be on the Senate floor to launch my filibuster to stop ANY extension or reauthorization of the “PATRIOT Act’s” unconstitutional and illegal domestic spying programs.

I will not rest.  I will not back down.  I will not yield one inch in this fight so long as my legs can stand.

Them sure are fight’n words. 

His legs did not have to stand all that long as he was relieved periodically by some Democrats and fellow Republicans during the “I will not rest” period of ten hours or so. Republicans Mike Lee and Ted Cruz relieved him as did Democrats Wyden and others. (rumors of a buffet and snooze room off camera discounted).  Don’t get us wrong, we support amendments to the act to insure against Fourth Amendment abuses. It is just that Senator Paul appears not so much even engaging in grandiloquence as grandstanding.

Rand Paul wraps 10-hour ‘filibuster’ over NSA surveillance program

 TPP and the ACLU: It’s time to reform the Patriot Act

It’s not every day that Tea Party Patriots decides to join forces with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). But sometimes, there are issues that are too important to let partisan politics get in the way.

Today, Tea Party Patriots Co-Founder Jenny Beth Martin has a joint op-ed in the Des Moines Register with Jeremy Rosen, Executive Director of the ACLU of Iowa about NSA spying and the Patriot Act.

Write Martin and Rosen:

Believe it or not, the Tea Party Patriots and the American Civil Liberties Union have some priorities in common. For one thing, we agree on the need for significant reforms to curtail government surveillance authorities, like some of those included in the Patriot Act. . . .

The worst part? The government routinely collects this information without a warrant or even any suspicion that a person is linked to terrorism. Our local police must get a warrant from a judge in order to search our homes or property. Why is it not the same when the NSA and the federal government want to seize and store intimate details about our private lives? What happened to our Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures?

Read their Des Moines Register guest editorial here.

NAACP also opposes Patriot Act, we are happy to report pigs must be flying somewhere

Occasionally we see the ACLU and conservative organization take the same bottom line positions on Constitutional matters even if usually for vastly different reasons, but Fourth Amendment concerns are genuine to both.  However there has been a similar joint communication of TEA Party Patriots and the NAACP which also opposes reauthorization of the Patriot Act. That is a position overlap that we didn’t see coming but is reflective of widespread disatisfaction with Washington. As Matt Lewis writing at The Daily Caller reports:

“The thinking behind these alliances is to send a message to Washington that Americans are absolutely fed up,” said Martin in an email. “When Tea Party Patriots, ACLU and NAACP can set aside their oft-adversarial history, come together, and say to Washington ‘We have a problem’…then Washington has a problem. And they’d better pay attention.”

I’m not naive enough to think that this represents a long-term reordering. When push comes to shove, expect these groups to return to their respective partisan corners. But one does get the sense an increasingly populist, anti-Washington mood is afoot. And this, if only for a moment, has transcended the usual political paradigm.

People who are traditionally at each other’s throats are discovering they share a mutual adversary. To some, it might manifest itself in the form of government snooping or a militarized police force. To others, it might just reinforce the maxim that “Any government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.” Either way, the right vs. left spectrum is currently overshadowed by one that pits big versus small — and the people versus the government. The real question is: How long can this last?

Mitch McConnell likes the Patriot Act the way it is

The chief sponsor of the original Patriot Act, Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner believes it has been abused and supports changes , Republican Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell likes the act the way it is and has introduced a bill to thwart changes. More reading on that maneuver here and here.

Rand and Mitch,

In spite of the deep dissatisfaction with Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell from conservatives,  especially Liberty and TEA Party activists, fellow Kentuckian Rand Paul, who nurtured his standing with those groups by claiming to be the change candidate opposed to manipulative establishment ways, was early to endorse Mitch McConnell for reelection to the Senate in 2014.  This was in disregard for the movement afoot to challenge McConnell in the primary by the elements largely responsible for securing Rand Paul’s Senate seat in the 2010 TEA Party tide.

We suspect Presidential fever had either already established itself  in Rand in 2014, or if not , remembrances of favors done occurred soon thereafter. Consider this down home manipulation agreed to by Senator “Regular Order” McConnell as explained in this February 24, 2015 AP article:

McConnell endorses Paul’s bid for a 2016 presidential caucus

McConnell, the Senate majority leader, endorsed Paul’s bid to create a Kentucky presidential caucus in 2016, a move that would allow Paul to run for president and re-election without appearing on the ballot twice in the same election, which is barred by Kentucky law.

McGuire noted the caucus would be a one-time event and Paul would raise money to pay for it so it “would do no damage to the state party or interfere with this year’s state races.”

Never mind the obvious intent and tradition behind the provision — to prevent such good-old boy intrigues and to nurture inter and infra-party strength and opportunity.  And this is the same Mitch McConnell who insists on keeping the Senate filibuster rules that empower Democrats and protect Obama.

Political back scratching requires the most flexible of political demeanor

About the time of the 2014 election, in anticipation of his presidential run, Paul had already been hiring contortionist operatives of the ilk of Steve Grubbs here in Iowa.  Regardless, barely a month after the mid-term election the Washington Examiner reported Mitch McConnell would endorse Rand Paul for president

Paul endorsed and campaigned for McConnell, the incoming Senate majority leader, during McConnell’s successful re-election bid this year. In return, McConnell has helped open doors for Paul to network with influential party power brokers and donors.

Now, McConnell says he expects to endorse Paul if Paul runs for higher office in 2016 . . .

Although Paul and McConnell are both Kentucky Republicans, they are in many ways unlikely allies. Paul took his seat in the Senate after winning the Republican primary over a candidate who was endorsed and cultivated by McConnell. And Paul has staked his professional identity on Libertarian-minded stances that have been at odds with some of those backed by McConnell, who is a more traditional conservative Republican.

 At odds with some?!  Permit us to perform an exegesis of that last sentence: McConnell has been at odds especially with key items of the libertarian agenda (like it or love it), and much of the conservative small government agenda. As regards McConnell being a traditional conservative Republican, his colors have been exposed as that of a big government,  Washington insider, Chamber of Commerce type and the epitome of what is wrong with Establishment Republican leadership. Once saddled up to that sort you can never get too far astray.

The Washington Examiner article continued:

“I’m going to be helpful to him in any way I can be, but I’m not going to be tromping around in New Hampshire and Iowa, I can tell you that,” McConnell added in the interview.

Some of us here in Iowa appreciate the favor.

R Mall

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