Even the federal courts won't stand in Mitch McConnell's way as he
barrels ahead to renew the expiring surveillance provisions of the
Patriot Act. That much was clear Thursday as the Senate majority leader and a flock of defense hawks
vigorously argued on the Senate floor in support of the National Security Agency's vast spying powers just hours after a court
ruled its phone dragnet illegal. To McConnell and his cohort, the ruling will not change their strategy:
to renew the Patriot Act and oppose virtually any reform to the
government's sweeping surveillance program. And even a short-term
reauthorization to the law's expiring surveillance authorities may no
longer be on the table. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina
Republican who is cosponsoring McConnell's effort to pass a "clean"
reauthorization of the Patriot Act's surveillance authorities due to
expire on June 1, was also undeterred. He argued that the phone snooping
might not have passed the test of a three-judge court panel, but that
it still met the standards of two politically divergent administrations
and the NSA legal team. "We
all agreed with what we were trying to do, but somehow we wrote the law
that didn't provide the statutory language," Burr told
National Journal. "I think that's a joke." During
a policy luncheon Thursday, Republicans engaged in a debate about the
best way forward, considering the new court ruling. Burr said many of
his colleagues were still in an "educational mode" about how the program
works and how to move forward...
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