Presidential wannabe Rand Paul was quite adamant as he declared his opposition to extending the Patriot Act.
On the other hand, Scott Walker wanted the Patriot Act to be extended intact
Gov. Scott Walker says he does not support the bill passed by the U.S. House – and written by fellow Wisconsin Republican Jim Sensenbrenner -- that bans the bulk collection of Americans’ call records.
In recent weeks, Walker has waded cautiously into the fierce debate over government surveillance, now coming to a head with some provisions of the Patriot Act set to expire by Monday.
The governor and likely presidential candidate has argued the government needs access to the so-called “meta-data” gathered by the National Security Agency while also calling broadly for a balance between security and privacy concerns.
But Walker's comments Friday night about the USA Freedom Act, which passed the House with more than 300 votes May 13, offer a little more specificity about where he stands on a bill that has divided the GOP’s throng of presidential hopefuls.
Talking to a small group of reporters during a sunset cruise on a New Hampshire lake, Walker was asked if he thinks the bill passed by the House strikes the right balance between security and privacy.
“No,” he said. “I think there needs to be the capacity, if we have in America enemy combatants, or people in line with enemy combatants, we need to be able to gain access to information that would help assist us.”
An aide confirmed that Walker does not support the Sensenbrenner bill, and wants to see the Patriot Act provisions reauthorized.
Keep in mind that the level of scrutiny had already been ruled to be unconstitutional.
But hey, since when did Walker give a damn about following the law?
Remember, it was Walker who, as Milwaukee County Executive, had a secret router installed in his office suite so that he and his staff could circumvent open record requests and to conceal the illegal politicking they were doing:
From this complaint, one of the things that stands out the most is the fact that Tim Russell set up a secondary, secret email system using a wireless router designed to set up a 3G network. They used this set up for their campaigning and fundraising emails, as well as official county business. But because it was secret even to the head of IT, any open records requests would miss this
Much more recently, it was reported that Walker included a nugget in his current state budget proposal that the records from his failed job creation agency be off limits to FOIA requests.
For Walker, the right to privacy - not to mention the right to free speech, the right to vote, the right of people to make their own medical decisions and any other right - are only for the ruling class, not for the little people.
