Is Joe Lieberman the only grown up in the Democratic Party?

The Protect America Act expired last Friday evening at midnight. This modification of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA ) allowed the government to conduct surveillance on foreign enemies of the United States without obtaining a probable-cause warrant from a Federal Judge.

It is dumfounding, ridiculous, and outrageous that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would allow this act to expire, rather than allow a vote on bill that received overwhelming approval in the Senate. The idea that with the nation at war and with troops in harms way, we will need to make a warrant application to a magistrate before we can intercept an Al Qaeda e-mail scares me. That House Democrats would allow this situation sickens me.

Robert Novak in the Washington Post says that the bill was killed as a boon to trial lawyers that fear telecom immunity might cost them money. That doesn’t make me feel better.

The 4th Amendment protects “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” This is a right the government may not violate. But the government also has a responsibility to protect us from other people, organizations, or governments that may seek to deprive us of our rights, including the right not to be murdered.

In the back of many people’s minds is the fear that our government might go too far, become too much like Big Brother, and take away our most precious freedoms. One of these freedoms is the right to criticize the government. The fear that intelligence resources will be used to spy, not on the nation’s enemies, but on the President’s is legitimate. Richard Nixon’s administration was proof of that. But the need to spy on our nation’s enemies is just as legitimate and arguably more urgent.

Where to draw the line? Should we allow unlimited electronic surveillance to give us maximum protection from terrorists? The potential for abuse there would be huge of course. But giving an unfettered right to use electronic surveillance outside U.S. does not have the same potential. While there might be an occasional political enemy of the president making a call overseas; that seems a negligible problem. To be truly oppressive would require domestic surveillance. Just because an e-mail from one overseas computer to another passes through a server physically located in the U.S. does not make that e-mail domestic.

The Democrats accuse President Bush and the Republicans of fear mongering. The problem with that argument is the danger we are being warned about is all too real. FDR said that all we have to fear is fear itself. He was talking about a crisis of confidence in our banking system and economy. Nancy Pelosi says the same thing about Islamic Fascists that have already succeeded in killing thousands of Americans and want to kill millions more. Take a trip down to lower Manhattan or ask a NYC Fireman if all we have to fear is fear itself. In the meantime, stop playing politics and give the government the power it needs to protect us.