''I sure would like to vote for a president whose reaction to the Patriot Act – that would have shocked Madison and Jefferson – was a sardonic rebuke to the herd of so-called congressional leaders who are loyal to their party, and not the Constitution, by voting for a fearful suspension of certain liberties.''
Shortly after the horrendous crime of 9/11, I underlined the abuses of our constitutional liberties in the Patriot Act as it hurtled through Congress. During that steamrollered legislative process, I was briefly encouraged by a bitingly sardonic dissent from one of the only 62 dissenters in the House, Democrat David Obey of Wisconsin:
"Why should we care? It's only the Constitution." Someone did care and had the courage to say so publicly when some others in Congress, with grave misgivings, remained silent lest they be accused, during re-election campaigns, of being soft on terrorism.
In the Senate, there was only a single vote against the Patriot Act, Democrat Russell Feingold of Wisconsin. The Democratic Senate leader at the time, Tom Daschle, aware of Feingold's coming apostasy, had ordered members of the Democratic caucus not to join Feingold's protest. But the singular constitutionalist from Wisconsin stood his ground.
Both of these believers of the idea that dissent is patriotic have remained staunchly independent. Obey, now the third-most senior member of the House, is currently chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and characteristically, he is not automatically supporting President Obama's military buildup in Afghanistan.
In the Dec. 12 New York Times, reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg quotes Obey: "I am damn tired of a situation in which only military families are asked to pay any price whatsoever for this war."
When commander in chief Obama called Obey for his support, as Stolberg discloses, the congressman asked the president whether he had seen the Bill Moyers PBS program with the audiotapes of President Lyndon Johnson, much troubled by continuing the Vietnam War, in conversation with the influential conservative Democratic Sen. Dck Russell.
When did government officials start ignoring our national charter – and why does it continue? Find out in "Who Killed the Constitution?"
Said Obey to Obama: "It is terrible, gut-wrenching to listen to them both say, 'Well, we know this is damn near a fool's errand, but we don't have any choice.'" http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=119793