Once-Lone Foe of Patriot Act Has Company
Kire
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
New York Times
Published: December 19, 2005
WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 - When Congress passed the antiterrorism bill known
as the USA Patriot Act in the fall of 2001, greatly expanding the
government's investigative powers, a single senator, Russell D.
Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, voted against it. With the nation
reeling from the Sept. 11 attacks, opposing the bill seemed an act of
political suicide, especially for a Democrat.
Today, more than 40 Democrats and four Republicans stand with Mr.
Feingold as he helps lead a filibuster blocking the act's renewal. They
are betting that the politics of terrorism have shifted from fear of
another attack to wariness of "Big Brother" intrusions on personal
privacy.
"If we stand up and say, as we are doing now, that we are absolutely
committed to fighting terrorism, and that we are absolutely committed
to the civil liberties of the American people, then that's a winning
position," Mr. Feingold said in a recent interview. "For us to show
weakness on civil liberties at this point would be another sign to
people that the Democratic Party is not standing up for what it
believes in."
Polls suggest that the public is supportive of the act but skeptical.
President Bush's admission on Saturday that he had authorized the
National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans may have deepened
that skepticism. With Mr. Bush facing criticism, even from within his
own party, for his handling of the war in Iraq and his policies on the
detention and treatment of military prisoners, the Patriot Act could
soon become a casualty of shifting public sentiment.