Debating the Patriot Act...Coming Soon to Your Town (Not) 

Debating the Patriot Act...Coming Soon to Your Town (Not)

In her column in this morning's San Francisco Chronicle, Debra Saunders takes some liberal organizations, such as the ACLU (why do conservatives have such a hard time supporting the ACLU? The organization's mission, which it sadly sometimes strays from, is to defend the Bill of Rights against abuses from the government, at all levels, yet more often than not, conservatives, particularly advocates of "smaller government," line up on the side of the government against individual civil liberties. Perhaps if conservatives had a stronger commitment to the principals embodied in the Bill of Rights and would involve themselves in this organization, there would be less of a tendency to stray to the left. But I stray from my topic.)to task for opposing John Ashcroft's proposed nationwide tour in defense of the grotesquely misnamed "Patriot Act." I've not had a chance to check the accuracy of Ms. Saunders' claims, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and concede that if the actions of these organizations are as she says they are, that they are trying to silence Mr. Ashcroft, they are acting in a manner that is inconsistent with a commitment to freedom of speech for all.

Curiously, though, Ms. Saunders' column seems to be dedicated only to exposing this hypocrisy and is really unconcerned with freedom of speech at all. She makes no note of the "other side of the story." She doesn't mention that the AG refuses to release his itinerary for this speaking tour. It appears that the AG is trying to duck a free and open debate on the pros (if there are any) and cons of the Patriot Act. Lord knows, such a debate is long overdue. This Act was passed in undue haste within two months of the 9/11 attacks; aids in the Justice Department have said that even Ashcroft neither read the whole thing nor understood the consequences of much of what he had read. There was no meaningful debate in Congress before both parties passed it overwhelmingly (in a vote foreshadowing the Democratic cave-in authorizing force against Iraq a year later). Now comes what appears to be an opportunity to have that debate. One of Ashcroft's complaints that motivated this speaking tour was that his dear bill has been unfairly maligned in the press for nearly two years now and he wants to set the record straight. I'm all for that, let's go. But rather than having Ashcroft talk past the opposition arguments or knock down straw men, what is wrong with announcing his agenda in advance and allowing an open debate on Patriot Act? Doesn't even have to be organized as such; we could just have Patriot Act opponents following Ashcroft around, speaking after him. Kind of like the beginning of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. But even there, Douglas eventually consented to sharing the podium with Lincoln. Is that asking too much from Ashcroft? Does he fear that the act can't stand up to a free and open debate? Perhaps, for a man who lost an election to a dead man, that is a legitimate fear.