I Can't Believe That I'm Beginning To Respect Bob Barr

[Syrinx]

During the whole Clinton/Lewinsky thing, I really couldn't stand this guy, but the things he has been saying and writing recently have me reconsidering my views. I admire his courage and principle. I still can't believe it, but I do.

Check out this piece he wrote for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Some 792 years ago, in Runnymede, England, a very unhappy King John was forced by a group of barons to sign a document called the "Magna Carta."

Despite the passage of so many centuries since that June day, and notwithstanding the fact that no one save a devoted cartographer could find the "meadow that is called Runnymede" on a modern map, the notion of a "Great Charter," clearly establishing rights of individuals and limiting the power of the governing authority, remains a central underpinning of Western civilization. These ideas form also the very basis of our own representative democracy; that is, until the administration of George W. Bush.

Yet, so little regard has the Bush administration for the rights of the people as opposed to the power of the government, that its attorney general recently told the American people, through testimony before the United States Senate, in effect, "don't worry so much about habeas corpus because you don't really have that right under our Constitution anyway." For many Americans, the shock of such words being spoken by an attorney general of the United States has not yet worn off, though uttered nearly three weeks ago.

Ignoring a law that requires a court order before surveilling Americans in the United States, or relegating a pesky and ancient "writ" to the category of a quaint and outworn technicality seem small steps indeed in such a world view; a view so at odds with the vision of Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and James Madison as to be unrecognizable.

http://www.bobbarr.org/default.asp?pt=newsdescr&RI=820

[tblue]

1. He is big on civil liberties. I heard him speak at an ACLU event, and he was great

Very passionate and right on the issues. But, yeah, he was a major stinker to the last duly elected President to serve as President.

[Syrinx]

2. it's really kind of a sickening feeling

That I have realizing that the guy I used to curse nearly nightly now makes infinitely more sense than our current government. I don't remember if he lost his seat to another Republican or to a Democrat, but if it was to a Republican, I hope he runs again.

[Wetzelbill]

3. Yeah, I know..... it's weird

I mean here is a guy who had an affair on his pregnant wife, forced her to have an abortion, drove her up to the clinic, dropped her off and drove away. Plus, he was awful during the Clinton impeachment.

Just a total shitheel.

But everytime in the last 3 years or so that I have read anything the guy has written or seen him on television, I find myself zealously agreeing. Even respecting the guy.

I don't know what to make of it, you know?

[maine_raptor]

4. Bob Barr

While I applaud his views on the Bill of Rights and civil liberties, I still will not forgive him for his role in the Clinton Impeachment. Isn't it amazing how the Bush Administration has made villains into "heroes"?

I'll listen to him speak now, whereby in the past I would have changed the channel. But no matter what he says, he still looks like a Japanese POW guard from some B grade WWII movie.