WP: Bob Barr, Bane of the Right? ("the skunk at CPAC's party")

[Pirate Smile]

Bob Barr, Bane of the Right?

By Dana Milbank
Saturday, February 11, 2006; Page A02

-snip-
No surprise there. The former Clinton impeachment manager is the skunk at CPAC's party this year. He says President Bush is breaking the law by eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without warrants. And fellow conservatives, for the most part, don't want to hear it.

-snip-
"Are we losing our lodestar, which is the Bill of Rights?" Barr beseeched the several hundred conservatives at the Omni Shoreham in Woodley Park. "Are we in danger of putting allegiance to party ahead of allegiance to principle?"

Barr answered in the affirmative. "Do we truly remain a society that believes that . . . every president must abide by the law of this country?" he posed. "I, as a conservative, say yes. I hope you as conservatives say yes."

But nobody said anything in the deathly quiet audience. Barr merited only polite applause when he finished, and one man, Richard Sorcinelli, booed him loudly. "I can't believe I'm in a conservative hall listening to him say is off course trying to defend the United States," Sorcinelli fumed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/10/AR2006021001799.html

[Pirate Smile]

1. more

"Dinh, now a Georgetown law professor, urged the CPAC faithful to carve out a Bush exception to their ideological principle of limited government. "The conservative movement has a healthy skepticism of governmental power, but at times, unfortunately, that healthy skepticism needs to yield," Dinh explained, invoking Osama bin Laden.

-snip-
It was the sort of tactic that has intimidated Democrats and the last few libertarian Republicans who question the program's legality. But Barr is not easily suppressed. During a 2002 Senate primary, he accidentally fired a pistol at a campaign event; at a charity event a decade earlier, he licked whipped cream from the chests of two women.

Barr wasn't going to get a lesson on patriotism from this young product of the Bush Justice Department. "That, folks, was a red herring," he announced. "This debate is very simple: It is a debate about whether or not we will remain a nation subject to and governed by the rule of law or the whim of men."

-snip-
Still, the old prosecutor managed to elicit a crucial concession from Dinh: that the administration's case for its program comes down to saying "Trust me."'

[madrchsod]

2. when barr gets this kind of reception

these people will believe anything bush says--just as the germans did long ago..

[kurth]

3. You have to give Barr credit

for standing up to Herr Karl Rove, Feldsmarschall Cheney, et al.

[LiberalPartisan]

4. It means he's spot on

The programming of the jack booted bush toadies didn't anticipate criticism of the great leader so when they hear it they lock up, stuck in an infinite loop.

[snowbear]

5. Good for Bob Barr..

What's the deal with him anyway? Did he retire as a Congressman or was he not re-elected?

[tritsofme]

7. IIRC

His district got merged with another GOP incumbent and he lost the primary.

[Pirate Smile]

6. kick

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. conservatives who really do believe in limited state power are rare

but they do exist

[Pirate Smile]

9. kick

[ChiciB1]

10. He's Changed...

Saw him on Bill Maher last year and I was pleasantly surprised!

[calimary]

11. How 'bout that, anyway? I've seen him before, too.

Not on Maher, so much, but elsewhere. He is REALLY singing a different tune these days. Stopped drinking the Kool-aid. Or at least one flavor of it, anyway. Maybe when he got redistricted out, he lost his place in the Kool-aid serving line, and has been away long enough to lose his taste for it. Habits, after all, have to be maintained rigorously. Or else you fall out of the habit.

[ChiciB1]

12. I Like The Way You Put It!

Very inventive!

[lumpy]

13. kick

up