PATRIOT DRAMA – AT 10:41 A.M. ET:  Unless the Senate acts, critical provisions of the Patriot Act will expire at midnight, leaving the United States blind in some important areas of electronic surveillance.  The House has already passed legislation renewing these provisions.  And even Field Marshal Obama is supporting the renewal.

But Senate approval is being held up, ironically, by a small group of Republicans led by Rand Paul.  From The Politico: 

It’s crunch time for Mitch McConnell and his Republican-controlled Senate.

The chamber will convene at 4 p.m. for a rare Sunday session in a last-ditch effort to keep provisions of the PATRIOT Act from lapsing at midnight — a herculean task complicated by the imminent deadline, a divided GOP and Rand Paul’s presidential aspirations.

Paul announced Saturday that he would not consent to any effort to speed up debate on a House-passed surveillance reform bill – which has wide support on Capitol Hill and is backed by President Barack Obama – nor any extensions of the current law. That would effectively force the controversial national security law, enacted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, to expire – at least temporarily.

“I am ready and willing to start the debate on how we fight terrorism without giving up our liberty,” the Kentucky senator and 2016 hopeful said in a statement on Saturday announcing his plans to block any movement on surveillance legislation. “Sometimes when the problem is big enough, you just have to start over.”

Paul’s aggressive approach is sure to frustrate fellow senators who are pushing for an overhaul of the controversial National Security Agency programs and believe that passage of an alternate NSA reform bill is inevitable.

And...

In his toughest remarks yet, Obama on Friday warned of the consequences of letting the surveillance part of the PATRIOT Act – as well as two other less controversial provisions – expire on Sunday after a meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who has also repeatedly urged Congress against letting the provisions lapse.

“I don’t want us to be in a situation in which, for a certain period of time, those authorities go away, and suddenly we’re dark, and heaven forbid we’ve got a problem where we could’ve prevented a terrorist attack or could’ve apprehended someone who was engaged in dangerous activity but we didn’t do so simply because of inaction of the Senate,” Obama said.

COMMENT:  We call 'em as we see 'em at Urgent Agenda, and here we agree with the president.  There may be legitimate concerns about parts of the Patriot Act, but there are responsible, thoughtful ways of dealing with them.  Killing the entire act is not one of them.

Once again Rand Paul shows he cannot be trusted on matters of security and foreign policy, any more than his father could.  His approach is reckless and irresponsible.  I hope this stops his presidential ambitions cold.

May 31, 2015