Barr Jumps GOP Ship for Libertarian Party
Former Clinton impeachment manager Bob Barr has left the GOP, joining the Libertarian Party instead. There was a time when Bob Barr was a good conservative but those days are in his past now. Here’s Bob Barr’s explanatiton on why he left the GOP:
“It’s something that’s been bothering me for quite some time, the direction in which the party has been going more and more toward big government and disregard toward privacy and civil liberties,” said Barr, 58, a lawyer and consultant living in Atlanta. “In terms of where the country needs to be going to get back to our constitutional roots … I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to do that is to work with a party that practices what it preaches, and that is the Libertarian Party.”
I suspect that Barr left mostly because of the “liberty issues” he talked about. Barr’s been an outspoken opponent of the Patriot Act and the NSA’s Terrorist Surveillance Program. It’s his right to advocate that position but that doesn’t mean he’s right on the issue.
I have real trouble with Barr’s position based on this lawsuit that he’s part of:
What is the NSA Domestic Spying Program?Sometime in 2001, the president authorized the NSA to intercept telephone and Internet communications of Americans inside the United States, without the authorization of any law or court. Under the program, the NSA is intercepting and analyzing millions of ordinary Americans’ communications, with the help of the country’s largest phone and Internet companies. The president has stated that he authorized the domestic spying in 2001, that he has reauthorized the program more than 30 times since its inception, and intends to continue doing so.
That isn’t even close to an accurate description of the NSA program. In fact, it’s a pack of bald-faced lies. Gen. Hayden testified about it under oath during his confirmation hearings. He dispelled all those myths during his testimony. Still, Barr persists even though he’s relying on secondhand information at best. In Bob Barr’s world, we’d be fighting the terrorists blind. He’ll deny it, of course, but it’s his actions that give him away. Frankly, Barr sounds like he’s reading his lines straight from the NY Times’ original article on the NSA intercept program. Forgive me if I don’t see Barr as a libertarian or the NY Times as an objective news source.
Frankly, Mr. Barr owes the dedicated people at the NSA a formal apology for accusing them of breaking the law.
Frankly, so does the NY Times.
Technorati Tags: NSA, Bob Barr, Libertarian Party, NY Times
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
December 17th, 2006 at 12:45 am
[...] Cross-posted at California Conservative Categories: The Constitution, Homeland Security, Intel, Terrorism, Media Bias | [...]
December 17th, 2006 at 7:07 am
It’s time that conservatives in general face the truth about libertarianism, and the way that it’s been slowly creeping into conservative ideology in the last few years - and that truth is that it’s a godless and intellectually bankrupt ideology that has no place in true, real deal, grassroots conservatism.
Set aside the fact that libertarians haven’t been elected to any significant office in any significant community (at least not when sold under their true label), the ideology itself is populated with people who have little or nothing in common with true conservative values.
Libertarianism and the godless, faithless anarcho-capitalist idiots that make up the ideology are pretty much the catch-all garbage bin of political philosophies.
Fitting that a loser like Barr ends up in that garbage bin.
Mac
http://www.brownsludge.com
December 18th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
…But how do you really feel, Mac?
I agree with a lot of what you say, though.
As far as Barr goes, I can see the jump from Republican politics as practiced now, but his reasoning is incredibly donkey-ish.
I, too, would like to see us get back to Constitutional roots, but more in the way of cut-backs to federal use of “interstate commerce”, getting out of where there is no mention of federal regulation in the Constitution (like in education), eliminating “imminent domain” where it has come to mean taking property illegally, etc. But where does the Constitution say we have to commit suicide just so conversations over public airwaves and under federal jurisdiction can be “protected”? I thought the first duty of any president, VP, senator, representative, judge and so on was to protect our country from enemies foreign and domestic.
Right now I’m seething because some yokel stole the CDL identity of an Oregon trucker and has applied for a New Jersey or New York CDL with a hazmat tag, and they (Oregon and either New Jersey or New York) don’t give a rip. That means whoever it is can fill his truck with dynamite, ammonium, whatever, and drive it into his local courthouse, arena or bowl game and no one will get upset until after the fact.
Now that’s commiting suicide.
December 20th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
[...] Original post by Gary Gross and software by Elliott Back [...]