Posted on 06/07/2013 12:52:11 AM PDT by Pinkbell
The outrage over President Barack Obama’s authorization of a nearly limitless federal dive into Americans’ phone records obscures a hiding-in-plain-sight truth about the 44th president many of his supporters have overlooked for years:
For all his campaign-trail talk of running the “most transparent administration” in U.S history, Obama never promised to reverse the 43rd president’s policies on domestic anti-terrorism surveillance — and he’s been good on his word.
Obama’s effort to strike what he’s repeatedly called “a balance” between personal liberty and homeland security has exposed what amounts to a split political personality: Candidate Obama often spoke about personal freedom with the passion of a constitutional lawyer — while Commander-in-Chief Obama has embraced and expanded Bush-era surveillance efforts like the 2011 extension of the Patriot Act, which paved the way for a secret court order allowing the gathering of Verizon phone records.
In an irony now being savored by his conservative critics, Obama administration officials are now relying on Republicans to defend him against charges from liberals and the libertarian right that he’s recklessly prioritized national security over personal liberty.
“Drone strikes. Wiretaps. Gitmo. Renditions. Military commissions. Obama is carrying out Bush’s fourth term, yet he attacked Bush for violating the Constitution,” said Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush’s press secretary.
“He’s helping keep the nation safe, vindicating President Bush, all while putting a bipartisan stamp on how to fight terror,” Fleischer added.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) defended the record-grab Thursday, publicly urging Attorney General Eric Holder to stay the course even if some corrections needed to be made.
“You keep up what you’re doing,” Graham said. “President Bush started it. President Obama’s continuing it. We need it, from my point of view.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Too true. Only goes to show how much Fedzilla has torn up the Constitution. We no longer are a Constitutional Republic.
With Bush’s “I had to flout it to protect it” BS, to the secret/back-door deals, to the blatant UN-Constitutional ‘findings’ we’re finding out recently....
There is NO BODY in Congress who is going to do a DAMN thing
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