Bully in the Pulpit: Ashcroft and Patriot Act -- Philadelphia Inquirer

[enough]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/7886600.htm

Posted on Fri, Feb. 06, 2004
Editorial | Ashcroft and the Patriot Act
The bully in the pulpit


Who would figure that a pro-war, Republican-controlled Congress would do anything that "unilaterally disarms America's defenses" against terrorists?

Sounds out of character.

Yet there was Attorney General John D. Ashcroft last week, frothing at the mouth about another imminent threat to America's security - this in the form of a bill proposed by two senators, one of them a conservative Republican.

What's going on here?

What's going on is that a growing portion of Congress can't stomach the multifront assault on American civil liberties that the attorney general is pressing in the name of fighting terrorism.

What has Ashcroft worked up is a reasonable, bipartisan proposal that would recalibrate the awesome antiterrorism powers that Congress hastily enacted in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

The details are far less sinister than you might imagine from Ashcroft's bullying broadside against the SAFE (Safety and Freedom Ensured) Act, introduced in October by Sens. Richard Durbin (D., Ill.) and Larry E. Craig (R., Idaho).

No one's surrendering the colors to al-Qaeda. Congress is trying to restore a better balance between security and liberty.

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[emanymton]

1. Bring Back The Bill Of Rights!

Read the Constitution

and when all else fails, follow the Declaration Of Independence

[indepat]

2. Ashcroft's vision of America surely isn't based on our Constitution

or the Declaration of Independence: surely he has some other vision for our "homeland."