Progressive Americans have cause for some cheer today: Senator Russ Feingold is stepping forward as the foremost champion of liberty on Capitol Hill. While many other Democrats in Congress are shying away from opposing the anti-freedom provisions of the Patriot Act, Senator Feingold is warning these Democrats that, come Election Day, they will be “Perceived as timid.” Senator Feingold is making up for their timidity with his own strength. Russell Feingold is filibustering the renewal of the Patriot Act.
Feingold is not a lone voice in the Senate. His moral resolve is convincing many who have been sitting on the fence. Republican Arlen Specter, for example, reacted to Senator Feingold’s criticisms of the Patriot Act’s most abusive provisions by saying plainly that “He happens to be right.”
Some excerpts from Feingold’s speech criticizing the most recent attempt to shove the anti-liberty provisions of the Patriot Act through Congress:
“These changes do not address the major problems with the Patriot Act that a bipartisan coalition has been trying to fix for the past several years. They are, quite frankly a fig leaf to allow those who were fighting hard to improve the Act to now step down, claim victory, and move on. What a hollow victory that would be, and what a complete reversal of the strong bipartisan consensus that we saw in this body just a couple months ago.”
“Protecting American values is not weakness, Mr. President. Standing on principle is not weakness. And committing to fighting terrorism aggressively without compromising the rights and freedoms this country was founded upon - that’s not weakness either.”
“I give credit to the Senator from Pennsylvania because it allowed us to start having a real debate on the Patriot Act. But credit also has to go to the American people who stood up, despite the dismissive and derisive comments of government officials, and said with loud voices - the Patriot Act needs to be changed. These voices came from the left and the right, from big cities and small towns all across the country. So far, more than 400 state and local government bodies have passed resolutions calling for revisions to the Patriot Act.”
“We now know that for the past four-plus years, the government has been wiretapping the international communications of Americans inside the United States, without obtaining the wiretap orders required by statute. You want to talk about abuses? I can’t imagine a more shocking example of an abuse of power, than to violate the law by eavesdropping on American citizens without first getting a court order based on some evidence that they are possibly criminals, terrorists or spies. So I don’t want to hear again from the Attorney General or anyone on this floor that this government has shown it can be trusted to use the power we give it with restraint and care.”
Thanks for standing up for our freedom, Senator Feingold.
