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Democracy Voted Out, Fascism Now Reigns in Amerika
(Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, 09 July 2004)
An effort to bar the government from demanding records from libraries and booksellers in some terrorism investigations fell one vote short of passage in the House on Thursday after a late burst of lobbying prompted nine Republicans to switch their votes. . . . The vote, a 210 to 210 deadlock, amounted to a referendum on the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act and reflected deep divisions in Congress over whether the law undercuts civil liberties. Under House rules, the tie vote meant the measure was defeated. . . . The outcome led to angry recriminations from House Democrats, who accused Republicans of "vote-rigging" by holding the vote open for an extra 23 minutes to get enough colleagues to switch votes. Frustrated Democrats shouted "Shame, shame!" and "Democracy!" as the voting continued . . . The antiterrorism law expanded the government's authority to secure warrants from a secret intelligence court in Washington to obtain records from libraries and other institutions, using what many legal experts regard as a lesser standard of proof than is needed in traditional criminal investigations. . . . "People are waking up to the fact that the government can walk into their libraries, without probable cause, without any particular information that someone was associated with terrorism, and monitor their reading habits," Representative Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who sponsored the measure, said in an interview. . . . Republicans lobbied furiously to defeat the amendment. President Bush threatened late Wednesday to veto the spending bill if the provision was included . . . Democrats identified eight of the nine Republicans who switched their votes: Michael Bilirakis of Florida, Rob Bishop of Utah, Thomas M. Davis III of Virginia, Jack Kingston of Georgia, Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado, Nick Smith of Michigan, Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Zach Wamp of Tennessee. One Democrat, Brad Sherman of California, also switched his vote to nay, officials said. In all, 18 Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the measure; four Democrats opposed it. . . . Democrats accused Republicans leaders of corrupting the voting process and drew comparisons to the dustup last November over a Medicare bill, which squeaked through the House after Republican leaders held the vote open for three hours to get colleagues to switch their votes. The House ethics committee is looking into accusations that one lawmaker, Mr. Smith, was offered a bribe on the House floor for his vote. . . . Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, said after Thursday's vote: "Republican leaders once again undermined democracy, this time so that the Bush administration can threaten our civil liberties. How thoroughly un-American." . . . And Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, said: "The Republicans are so desperate to look into bookstore and library records that they violated the very principles of democracy to block an amendment that had already passed. This is an outrage." . . . The defeat of the library amendment was an important victory for Bush administration officials.
"We're obviously pleased," said William E. Moschella, an assistant attorney general. . . . Mr. Bush has made the Patriot Act and its importance in fighting terrorism a theme in his re-election campaign, urging Congress repeatedly to extend provisions in it that are set to expire at the end of next year. . . . Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, has hit the issue with equal vigor in arguing that parts of the law go too far in prying into the lives of ordinary Americans and risk government abuse. . . . Officials with the American Library Association, with more than 64,000 members, said they suspected based on anecdotal evidence that the government had used the antiterrorism law and related powers to demand library records more frequently than it had acknowledged.

posted by LoZo 3:27 PM