Sure, Sen. Rand Paul was grandstanding at times over the weekend, just as his critics alleged, when he prevented the U.S. Senate from voting to extend several national security programs that lapsed at midnight Sunday.
And even the Kentucky Republican conceded that the bill he targeted, the USA Freedom Act, will almost certainly pass later this week.
As it should, for reasons we’ll get to shortly.
But when it comes to grandstanding, both sides in this debate have been serious offenders. And if we had to assign the top prizes for exaggeration, they’d clearly go to Paul’s most persistent critics. From the president on down, they’ve been suggesting that even a brief pause in these surveillance programs imperils the nation’s security — as if terrorists had been waiting for such an opportunity to send key communications.
It’s not plausible. The Justice Department’s inspector general recently reported that even federal anti-terrorism officials who swear by the controversial bulk collection of telephone data under Section 215 of the Patriot Act could “not identify any major case developments” as a result of it.
And it’s not as if security officials are lacking in other tools.
Paul’s critics have not been content to fear-monger alone, either. A few, including Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., have baldly claimed that he is putting his presidential ambitions above national security.
“I know what this is about — I think it’s very clear — this is, to some degree, a fundraising exercise,” McCain said Sunday.
McCain needs to get a grip. His vision of vesting almost limitless surveillance power in the federal government is not one shared by most Americans. That’s why the USA Freedom Act was written — to trim back the worst excesses of surveillance — and why it passed the House so handily.
Paul worries that the USA Freedom Act doesn’t go far enough in cracking down on the mass, indiscriminate collection of personal data, and he’s right to be concerned. But the bill is now the only game in town. It needs to pass.
Moreover, even its limited reforms constitute a small miracle given how a number of powerful senators, beginning with Senate President Mitch McConnell, would have preferred to leave the spying status quo intact.
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