House aide reveals shenanigans in Patriot Act vote [priv]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: July 13, 2004 11:56:40 PM EDT
To: politech () politechbot com
Subject: [Politech] House aide reveals shenanigans in Patriot Act vote 
[priv]

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/2004/07/13/house-patriot/


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [Politech] House very narrowly rejects Patriot Act 
amendment 	[priv]
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 08:06:07 -0400
From: Singleton, Norman <Norman.Singleton () mail house gov>
To: 'Declan McCullagh' <declan () well com>

Chief, please distribute this to the poltiech list:

http://blog.lewrockwell.com/lewrw/archives/005080.html
Re: The Party of Big Government (the full story)
Posted by Norman Singleton at July 9, 2004 09:36 PM

Here is some more details on how the GOP used procedural tricks to 
defeat an
attempt to role back part of the PATRIOT Act, which Lew and Daniel
previously commented on:

Under section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, judges must automatically approve 
a
request to search library records, thus the PATRIOT Act turns judges 
into
rubber stamps instead of independent checks on federal law enforcement.
Representatives Bernie Sanders, Ron Paul and others offered an 
amendment to
the Commerce, Justice, and State Department Appropriations bill 
restoring
the fourth amendment requirement that the government show probable 
cause and
obtain a warrant from an independent judge before using taxpayer funds 
to
search library and Internet records.

The amendment was debated yesterday afternoon and at 3:41 Congress 
began was
supposed to be a 15-minute vote on the amendment.


However, at the end of 15 minutes, the Sanders-Paul amendment was 
winning.
So, instead of bringing down the gavel and ending the vote, leadership 
"kept
the vote open" while it twisted arms to get Republicans to change their
votes.

Like they did during the Medicare votes, the GOP leadership ordered the
C-SPAN cameras to remain fixed on a wide shot of the House, so the 
American
people could not see the House leadership browbeat members to abandon 
the
Fourth Amendment and their constituents' freedom "for the good of the
party."

While they could not see what was going on, the American people could 
hear
Representative Sanders and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi inquire as to
whether 15 minutes had passed and if so why the vote was still being 
held
open. The official explanation from the GOP leadership was the vote 
would
remain open for as long as members where waiting to vote. When the 
Democrats
said they did not see any member waiting to vote and asked who these
mysterious members waiting to vote where, they received no answer.

Finally, enough Republicans caved in that the leadership was able to 
get a
tie vote, and since an amendment cannot pass on a tie, it was defeated. 
The
leadership brought down the gavel on the 15-minute vote at 4:19 p.m.

Postscript-- At least one member of the GOP House leadership has said 
they
GOP has an "obligation" to push their agenda through the House, 
regardless
of how many rules they have to "bend."

After the vote one member pointed out that then-Rep. Richard Cheney 
called
Speaker Jim Wright an S.O.B. for employing similar tactics in the 
eighties.
In fact, Newt Gingrich and co. once promised the American people 
Republicans
would end practices like that used to kill the Sanders-Paul amendment 
(and
ram the PATRIOT Act and Medicare bill into law) once the Republicans 
took
control of the House.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss.

Norman Kirk Singleton
Legislative Director
Congressman Ron Paul
203 Cannon
202-225-2831

 "I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is 
libertarianism...The
basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or 
less
centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty
general description of what libertarianism is."

                 Ronald Reagan, 1975

 "...it [conscription] rests on the assumption that your kids belong to 
the
state. If we buy that assumption then it is for the state -- not for
parents, the community, the religious institutions or teachers -- to 
decide
who shall have what values and who shall do what work, when, where and 
how
in our society. That assumption isn't a new one. The Nazis thought it 
was a
great idea."

                  Ronald Reagan, 1979

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