Rand Paul: Privacy Crusader!

Nob Akimoto

Nob Akimoto is a policy analyst and part-time dungeon master. When not talking endlessly about matters of public policy, he is a dungeon master on the NWN World of Avlis

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10 Responses

  1. Mike Schilling says:

    That’s Democrats for you: never met a big government program they didn’t love.

    Umm, I mean they’re soft on terrorism.Report

  2. Damon says:

    “and all of the Democratic senators defeated just two weeks ago voted in favor.”

    Hey, they got their pensions and the dirt the NSA has on them probably doesn’t matter anymore now that they aren’t coming back to DC.Report

  3. clawback says:

    No, you got it all wrong. Rand Paul voted against it only because it wasn’t strong enough. It’s all about heightening the contradictions, I think.Report

    • Mark Thompson in reply to clawback says:

      Aye – more specifically, his objection was that it included a reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act, which would otherwise need to get specifically reauthorized next year, and which is on the whole probably the greater evil from a civil liberties perspective. It’s not out of the question that his belief is that it will be possible to successfully filibuster reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act next year. I don’t think that’s a very good calculus, but it’s not an entirely unreasonable position either – last time around, about 2/3 of Democrats in the House voted against it when the House was under GOP leadership, though only about 1/5 of Senate Democrats did so under their own leadership, and two of those will be gone in January.

      It’s not out of the question, though it is unlikely, that a GOP-dominated Congress will cause Democratic Senators to largely unite against a reauthorization, along with the couple of Republicans who voted against it last time around. That may be enough to mount a successful filibuster.

      Again, I don’t think I agree with this calculus, and thus I think this is making the perfect the enemy of the good. But I also don’t think it’s totally disconnected from reality, either.

      That said, the fact that DiFi wound up opposing cloture makes me concerned that the bill was so watered down as to be useless.Report

  4. North says:

    Ya gotta give Rand Paul credit, he desires national office and knows he’s not going to get there by depending only on the 5% primary libertarian issue voters that exist out there. He is a realist (and a whore like all other politicians but I’m not convinced that whore isn’t part of the default job description of a politician).Report

  5. SteveTheCat says:

    For the committed Dem partisans here, why do you believe the Evil Rethuglicans would cede this issue in the lame duck?
    Are your opponents as dim-witted as you believe?
    Watch for something BIGGER and BROADER with the name RAND PAUL written all over it.
    Dems can take solace in getting the vote of Ted Cruz – that should tell you something.Report

  6. Jaybird says:

    Well, yet another reason to vote 3rd Party, I guess.

    I do look forward to what happens at the re-authorization of PATRIOT, though.

    Out of curiosity, does the Executive Branch have any jurisdiction over the NSA or is that solely the jurisdiction of Congress?Report