Conservatism and the Bush bunch.Bob Ban', a former Republican congressman from Georgia who served as one of the House impeachment managers during Bill Clinton's impeachment trial in the Senate, has become an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's "Homeland Security" agenda. He has been particularly vehement in condemning the administration's use of warrantless wiretaps wiretap n. using an electronic device to listen in on telephone lines, which is illegal unless allowed by court order based upon a showing by law enforcement of "probable cause" to believe the communications are part of criminal activities. Use of wiretap is also a wrongful act for which the party whose telephones were tapped may sue the party performing the act and/or listening in as an invasion of privacy or for theft of information., a policy he describes as an assault on the rights protected by the Fourth Amendment. At the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC CPAC - Cable Public Affairs Channel (Canadian TV station) CPAC - Calgary Performing Arts Centre CPAC - Centennial Park Aquatic Center (Orland Park, IL) CPAC - Center for Process Analytical Chemistry CPAC - Cerebral Palsy Ability Center CPAC - Charlotte Performing Arts Center (Michigan) CPAC - Civilian Personnel Administration Center CPAC - Civilian Personnel Advisory Center CPAC - Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center, Inc.) in Washington, Barr--once a darling of the Beltway "right"--was treated as an apostate and heretic. Barr was on hand to debate former Bush administration legal adviser Viet Dinh, who helped compose the so-called Patriot Act. "Do we truly remain a society that believes that ... every president must abide by the law of this country?" asked Barr during his opening statement opening statement n. the explanation by the attorneys for both sides at the beginning of the trial of what will be proved during the trial. The defendant's attorney may delay the opening statement for the defense until the plaintiff's evidence has been introduced. Unlike a "closing argument", the opening statement is supposed to be a factual presentation and not an argument. (See: closing argument). "I, as a conservative, say yes. I hope you as conservatives say yes." This exhortation, reports the Washington Post, was greeted by "deathly" silence by the audience, which was much more receptive to Dinh's effort to "carve out a Bush exception to their ideological principle of limited government." "The conservative movement has a healthy skepticism skepticism (skĕp`tĭsĭzəm) [Gr.,=to reflect], philosophic position holding that the possibility of knowledge is limited either because of the limitations of the mind or because of the inaccessibility of its object. It is more loosely used to denote any questioning attitude. of governmental power, but at times, unfortunately, that healthy skepticism needs to yield," pontificated Dinh. While Barr insisted that the central issue in the debate was "whether or not we will remain a nation subject to and governed by the rule of law or the whim of men," Dinh insisted that true conservatives are willing and eager to trust Bush: "None of us can make a conclusive assessment as to the wisdom of that [wiretapping] program and its legality, without knowing the full operational details. I do trust the president when he asserts that he has reviewed it carefully and therefore is convinced that there is full legal authority." Dinh, like other supposed Bush-era conservatives, inverts Jefferson's familiar warning that "in questions of power ... let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." Dinh obviously views Bush as so trustworthy that, unlike other men, he does not need any constitutional restraints. On the other hand, Barr holds to the pre-Bush era conservative view. "Whether it's a sitting president when I was an impeachment manager, or a Republican president who has taken liberties with adherence to the law, to me the standard is the same," Barr told the Post. |
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