An honest conservative at Free Republic, responding to supporters of the president's warrantless surveillance program:

Conservatism used to be about putting limits on government's power. The conservatives who put out this press release still get it. A lot of freepers don't.

The freepers who want to ignore constitutional checks and balances, in the name of "security," will get a bite in the ass [when] Hillary [Clinton] becomes president and starts using the unchecked powers they have been so willing to grant to the executive branch.

Free. Republic. My irony meter is off the charts.

And yeah, here's that press release, from Barr, Keene and (gulp) Norquist?

Leading Conservatives Call for Extensive Hearings on NSA Surveillance; Checks on Invasive Federal Powers Essential

Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances (PRCB) today called upon Congress to hold open, substantive oversight hearings examining the President's authorization of the National Security Agency (NSA) to violate domestic surveillance requirements outlined in the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, chairman of PRCB, was joined by fellow conservatives Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR); David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union; Paul Weyrich, chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation and Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, in urging lawmakers to use NSA hearings to establish a solid foundation for restoring much needed constitutional checks and balances to intelligence law.

"When the Patriot Act was passed shortly after 9-11, the federal government was granted expanded access to Americans' private information," said Barr. "However, federal law still clearly states that intelligence agents must have a court order to conduct electronic surveillance of Americans on these shores. Yet the federal government overstepped the protections of the Constitution and the plain language of FISA to eavesdrop on Americans' private communication without any judicial checks and without proof that they are involved in terrorism."

It's not the surveillance, stupid.

It's the warrants.

Or lack thereof.

Labels: in the news