I know its a crazy day when I agree with Van Jones! Wow:
If a GOP prez implied he could kill US citizens on US soil without due process, we liberals would be marching down street #ConsistencyCounts
— Van Jones (@VanJones68) March 7, 2013
The point is not whether OBAMA would abuse that kind of authority. The NEXT prez might. So we must be vigilant now & #consistent. #NoDrones
— Van Jones (@VanJones68) March 7, 2013
And John Cusack too
@cenkuygur: Great credit to Ron Wyden so far for being the only principled Democrat to join Rand Paul in arguing for the constitution.”
— John Cusack (@johncusack) March 7, 2013
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) tweeted support, but otherwise progressives who might have assumed to have been supportive were absent, leaving members of the GOP as the sole defenders of civil liberties. The White House was equally silent.
And a big shocker at who I disagree with. John McCain:
…there were seven Republicans Senators that decided it was a better idea to eat dinner with the odious Obama instead of assisting Rand Paul. Worse, two Republicans actually denounced Paul’s efforts. All these Senators need to be gotten rid of.
Rand Paul used the debate about the nomination of John Brennan as his “in” to begin his filibuster. Obama offered the nomination of Brennan as his next CIA chief and Paul used his turn to speak about Brennan as a launching pad to force Obama and the CIA to agree not to kill Americans with domestic drone strikes without trail, warrant, or arrest.
The excitement from rank and file GOPers hungry for some kind of victory was tremendous. Unfortunately, two foolish GOP Senators actually denounced Rand Paul for his successful and exciting effort.
The bobbsey twins, John McCain (Ariz) and his lapdog Lindsay Graham (So. Car.) actually attacked Paul for his filibuster. John McLame, for instance, called Paul “ridiculous.”
As Rusty Weiss notes, “What’s actually entering the ‘realm of the ridiculous’ Mr. McCain, is that you have been entrenched in the old school GOP so long that you are completely unable to identify a staunch defense of the very documents that you and the President of the United States have sworn to uphold … if it bit you in the ass.”
Rand Paul did a great service last night in calling attention to this issue. Judging from the reactions from both the left and the right, he was right on point.
Paul has the makings of a great leader as long as he doesn’t become too much like his loony dad.
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