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4 GOP Senators Hold Firm Against Patriot Act Renewal
Washington Post ^ | Charles Babington | Charles Babington

Posted on 12/20/2005 6:58:23 PM PST by ncountylee

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) could barely conceal his anger.

"The Patriot Act expires on December 31, but the terrorist threat does not," he told reporters at the Capitol yesterday. "Those on the Senate floor who are filibustering the Patriot Act are killing the Patriot Act."

There was just one problem. Well, four problems, actually. Four of the 46 senators using the delaying tactic to thwart the USA Patriot Act renewal are members of Frist's party. It is a pesky, irritating fact for Republicans who are eager to portray the impasse as Democratic obstructionism, and a ready-made rejoinder for Democrats expecting campaign attacks on the issue in 2006 and 2008.

The four Republican rebels -- Larry E. Craig (Idaho), Chuck Hagel (Neb.), John E. Sununu (N.H.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) -- have joined all but two Senate Democrats in arguing that more civil liberties safeguards need to be added to the proposed renewal of the Patriot Act.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Alabama; US: Idaho; US: Nebraska; US: New Hampshire; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 109th; civiliberties; craig; gop; gwot; hagel; larrycraig; murkowski; nationalsecurity; obstructionistdems; patriotact; sununu; terrorism; wot
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To: DLfromthedesert
I suggest that YOU don't "get it". Being a Conservative, doesn't mean that you're an idiot. Neither does it mean that you're an isolationist. Nor does it mean that one is against trying to know about terrorist activities before they happen.

Was George Washington a screaming lefty?

81 posted on 12/20/2005 7:42:38 PM PST by nopardons
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To: ncountylee
This is the ultimate party discipline issue for Frist. If he can't get this piece of legislation to an actual vote then they might as well appoint Harry Ried both Majority and Minority leader since he seems to run everything already.

I really hope that these clowns, from both parties, don't end up with the blood of many Americans on their hands. We won't forget. Ever.

82 posted on 12/20/2005 7:42:40 PM PST by Mad_as_heck (The MSM - America's (domestic) public enemy #1.)
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To: nralife

If he IS a conservative-and I know he is VERY pro-Second Amendment-then why is he on Hillary and Durbin's side on the Patriot Act?


83 posted on 12/20/2005 7:43:20 PM PST by Riverman94610
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To: ncountylee

Why does WAPO think this is a pesky problem for Republican campaigns? We all know we have RINO's that don't give a damn about the safety of the United States, and we have no problem pointing them out either. Added, the vast majority of Democrats are blocking it.

Sorry WAPO, but Dems lose. RINO's lose. Republicans don't on the issue. They are the Majority standing up for it.

Further, the American people WANT it renewed so they are on the losing end. Sununu was whining in a statement that the President was responsible for the endangerment to our safety because he would have agreed to a three month extension. The nitwit is whining because the President is NOT on the wrong side of the issue, HE IS. He doesn't even have the guts to take the heat and tries to deflect it to the President.

BTW, Hagel, you will never be President.


84 posted on 12/20/2005 7:43:36 PM PST by Soul Seeker (Mr. President: It is now time to turn over the money changers' tables.)
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To: nralife

Inhofe and Coburn are conservative Republicans; Craig hasn't been standing along side those two very much lately so the question is WHY? I am not buying his is Conservative but not Republican -- then he should quit running as a Republican if that is the case which would put him in the Ron Paul category. They use the Republican Party to get elected and then pull a stunt. Less than impressed!


85 posted on 12/20/2005 7:44:48 PM PST by PhiKapMom (AOII MOM -- Merry Christmas!)
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To: flaglady47
I'd much rather see McCain become president than Hagel...

Neither will ever be President. Republicans value loyalty, leadership and getting things done not egomaniac "mavericks" who repeatedly torpedo the party's agenda and values to suck up to the Lies All The Time Media. The Dinosaur Media may love Senators McMedia and Hateful, no one in the Republican party does. Unfortunately for the Senators, WE, not the Failed Media, nominate the Party's candidate in 2008. Both of them are SO over.

86 posted on 12/20/2005 7:44:55 PM PST by MNJohnnie (We do not create terrorism by fighting the terrorists. We invite terrorism by ignoring them.--GWBush)
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To: chris1
What I don't understand is that if there were all these abuses, where is the evidence??? I have seen zero evidence of any normal cotizens being abused by the NSA or HSD. The RINO's really are scum.

"Abuse" is in the eye of the beholder.

Some example uses at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1542002/posts?page=31#31

87 posted on 12/20/2005 7:45:31 PM PST by Cboldt
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To: Mrs. Shawnlaw

I agree; there are parts of the Patriot Act that really go too far.


88 posted on 12/20/2005 7:45:33 PM PST by DLfromthedesert (Texas Cowboy...graduated to Glory)
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To: cowtowney

He MAY be voting out of concern for Big Govt.abuses.That I can sympathize with.
Yet I have to agree with Bush-Cheney on this one-our nation's security comes first.


89 posted on 12/20/2005 7:46:21 PM PST by Riverman94610
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To: Cboldt

We need more Jeff Session types in the Senate and less Craig, Hagle, Murkowski, Sununu (who has a short memory how much he owes his win to this President) IMHO!


90 posted on 12/20/2005 7:47:14 PM PST by PhiKapMom (AOII MOM -- Merry Christmas!)
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To: nopardons

You're the one that's hysterical. There are a few provisions that need to be looked at carefully; like sneak and peek.... think of these provisions in the hands of Hillary, and you might have a different hysterical reaction.


91 posted on 12/20/2005 7:47:23 PM PST by DLfromthedesert (Texas Cowboy...graduated to Glory)
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To: Mad_as_heck
This is the ultimate party discipline issue for Frist.

Why? Even with all the Republicans he would be 3 votes shy of Cloture. Why is it the Democrats NEVER are held accountable for their actions?

92 posted on 12/20/2005 7:47:31 PM PST by MNJohnnie (We do not create terrorism by fighting the terrorists. We invite terrorism by ignoring them.--GWBush)
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To: Mrs. Shawnlaw

Consrvatives overwhelming favor the Patriot Act. Liberals and Libertarians do not. But even so, the Majority of the country overwhelming favors the conservative position on this issue and wants it renewed.

Considering this is a conservative position, you shouldn't be shocked conservatives are supporting it on the board.


93 posted on 12/20/2005 7:47:57 PM PST by Soul Seeker (Mr. President: It is now time to turn over the money changers' tables.)
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To: ncountylee
An analysis of this seems pretty straight forward. Where in Idaho, Nebraska, New Hampshire, or Alaska would a terrorist care to strike?

Muleteam1

94 posted on 12/20/2005 7:48:01 PM PST by Muleteam1
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To: msnimje
A group called "Mainstream Republicans" received a donation from George Soros ($50,000 I think) a few years back.

Main Street Republican Partnership. Soros' donation went to the Main Street Individual Fund, a technically separate operation that shares the same street address as the Main Street Republican Partnership.

You would recognize quite a few names on their membership roll.

95 posted on 12/20/2005 7:48:11 PM PST by Cboldt
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE

amen. make them stay throughout.


96 posted on 12/20/2005 7:48:30 PM PST by fooman (Get real with Kim Jung Mentally Ill about proliferation)
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To: msnimje

Larry Craig and John Sunnune were not on this list.


97 posted on 12/20/2005 7:48:53 PM PST by DLfromthedesert (Texas Cowboy...graduated to Glory)
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To: DLfromthedesert
you might have a different hysterical reaction

DF from the desert. ANY law can be abused. To demand perfect is to demand the Goverment NEVER do ANYTHING because SOME DAY IN SOME WAY someone might misuse the power. That is paranoia NOT a rational viewpoint.

98 posted on 12/20/2005 7:49:01 PM PST by MNJohnnie (We do not create terrorism by fighting the terrorists. We invite terrorism by ignoring them.--GWBush)
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To: DoughtyOne
Let's take their two and send these four packing.

Careful, careful, careful for what you wish!

Did you read the Patriot Act and analyzed it? Remember, the catch is in very fine print as usual.

Just because Prez Bush initiated it, as a Republican President, it does not mean, it is a good Law; especially when tweaked and twisted by the Congress/Senate with their wicked way of inserting all kinds of Liberty robbing paragraphs which will last for ever, if no sunset of the Act is set.

The Patriot Act is a very dangerous Bill of Goods, disguised as a domestic protection act against terrorism!

99 posted on 12/20/2005 7:49:05 PM PST by danmar ("Reason obeys itself,and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it....... Thomas Paine)
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To: Mrs. Shawnlaw
I guess that you would have had worse fits during WW II, then.

Perhaps 9/11 doesn't matter to you. Maybe you assume that you are safe where you are and don't care about others in the line of fire. Is that it?

What, exactly, do you find damning about IDs and whatever gpses are re stock?

100 posted on 12/20/2005 7:49:09 PM PST by nopardons
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