Barr makes FISA play for Obama supporters Stephen C. Webster

Published: Friday July 4, 2008





Print This Email This When Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama angered his Netroots-base of support over agreeing to vote for the GOP-sanctioned amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Associated Press ran a story claiming his compromise gives Republicans 'ammo.' Republicans, it would seem, are not the only group belied by the news. If the campaign 2008 truism maintains, and Obama indeed leached significant support from Ron Paul at the moment of primary truth, then Libertarian Presidential Nominee Bob Barr, the former Republican congressman from Georgia who runs with Paul's blessing, is making a power play to win them back. "Sen. Barack Obama has reaffirmed his refusal to live up to his promise to oppose the Bush administration, which violated the law by conducting warrantless surveillance of Americans' telephone calls," said Barr in a July 4 media release. "Unfortunately, the Democrats also were more enablers of government abuse than defenders of American liberty." Obama, said Barr, promised change. "But when the Democratic congressional leadership decided to concede to almost all of the administration's demands in rewriting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Sen. Obama went along with the crowd." On Obama's own social networking Web site, a group of supporters lobbying the senator for a no vote on the FISA amendments have amassed in greater numbers than groups formed officially by the campaign itself. The group's founder, liberal blogger and activist Mike Stark, called the move a "stiff arm to the people that care about the Constitution." "It's left a question in a lot of people's mind about how committed he really is to change," Stark told RAW STORY . Barr's release, distributed on PR News Wire, aims to draw a parallel between the two parties, and offer an alternative with a distinct Ron Paul, libertarian appeal. "We cannot trust either the Republican or Democratic parties to defend the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, which demonstrates the bankruptcy of the two major parties," said Barr. "... It should be obvious to all that only the Libertarian Party provides an alternative in November." An Obama spokesman recently attempted an explaination of the candidate's position to The New York Times. Greg Craig, a Washington lawyer who advises the Obama campaign, said Tuesday in an interview that Mr. Obama had decided to support the compromise FISA legislation only after concluding it was the best deal possible.



"This was a deliberative process, and not something that was shooting from the hip," Mr. Craig said. "Obviously, there was an element of whats possible here. But he concluded that with FISA expiring, that it was better to get a compromise than letting the law expire." "Of course I'm going to vote for him in November," said Stark. But "we're keeping score, and there's going to be a time when he needs us. ... We have long memories." The senate vote on amending FISA is scheduled for Tuesday.