Hatch alarms right over anti-terror act

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Sep/09152003/utah/92636.asp

When Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch says he will do everything in his power to grant President Bush's latest request to expand federal police authority beyond the Patriot Act, it dismays one of the nation's leading conservative strategists.

"That's like somebody saying they'll raise taxes indefinitely," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and a board member of the National Rifle Association and American Conservative Union. "Why would he want to give the federal government indefinite power?"

At a time when many GOP lawmakers from the Rocky Mountain states are saying the anti-terrorism law passed immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks went too far and needs greater checks and balances, Utah's senior senator has become Congress' leading proponent of giving federal authorities more law enforcement powers and fewer judicial authorization restrictions.

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"These federal prosecutors are like teenage boys on prom night who have one thing on their mind and they want more of it," said Norquist, who worked on the staff of the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Republican Party Platform committees. "It's Congress' job to sometimes tell them no. Sensenbrenner has certainly been more aggressive in that than Hatch, unless Hatch is doing it quietly behind closed doors."