Posted on 11/27/2015 1:06:11 PM PST by FourPeas
The Paris attacks have renewed debate on the U.S. government's post-Sept. 11 domestic surveillance laws, leading to efforts to revive the issue on Capitol Hill and handing Marco Rubio an opening against Ted Cruz in the Republican presidential race.
The two senators were on opposite sides earlier this year when Congress eliminated the National Security Agency's bulk phone-records collection program and replaced it with a more restrictive measure to keep the records in phone companies' hands.
Rubio, R-Fla., sided with top Republican senators in trying unsuccessfully to extend the existing program, saying that national security required it. Cruz, R-Texas, allied himself with Democrats and the few other Republicans who said the program amounted to intrusive government overreach with no security benefit and voted to remake it.
Now, with polls showing the public is growing more concerned with security after the Paris attacks this month that killed 130 people, Rubio is backing long-shot legislation aimed at keeping the intended changes from taking effect at month's end, as scheduled. He also needling Cruz, who is responding just as adamantly, as the two, rising in the presidential polls, escalate their direct confrontations.
"This is not a personal attack. It's a policy difference," Rubio said recently in an interview in Des Moines, Iowa. He said Cruz had joined with Senate liberals and the ACLU "to undermine the intelligence programs of this country."
"They do so under the guise of protecting our liberties," Rubio said. "But in fact you can protect our liberties without undermining those programs."
Cruz, in an interview, disputed Rubio's criticism.
"I disagree with some Washington Republicans who think we should disregard and discard the constitutional protections of American citizens," he said. "We can keep this nation safe without acquiescing to Big Brother having information about every aspect of our lives."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
versus
Rubio/McCain: "It's just astonishing to me how those advocates of ridding us of any government involvement in our lives have now become strangely quiet," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "Of course they've been proven wrong."
Not a hard choice to make.
This is obviously the RINO / GOPe / MSM line of attack on Cruz who voted against the Mass Surveillance State they all prefer.
As if somehow Cruz would be weak on terrorists.
Idiots.
Sure is. The is the obligatory hit piece on Cruz. Screw the nyt. I would not be surprised if Karl Rove was helping out the nyt on the hit piece.
Say they have have their patriot act powers. But it can only be used against Muslim terrorists, as originally intended and sold to the public.
Those powers are for the war on Islamic terror and not suspected crime by US citizens in general nor to harass and bother the president’s political and social enemies.
I’d gladly go for it under those conditions, assuming brutal penalties for misuse (like torture, followed by death, followed by your house gets made into a public toilet and stocked with an initial batch of alcoholic bums), or better yet, some physical means that PREVENTS misuse, or best of all, both.
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