Who’s looking out for our liberties?

It seems to be mostly dissident conservatives, says Nat Hentoff (link via Conservative Green):

My respect continues to increase for the conservative defenders of our most fundamental liberties. A founder of the conservative movement, Paul Weyrich — chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation — exemplifies this force when he writes: “Because of the War on Terrorism, America may be on the verge of becoming a national security state.” Mr. Weyrich continues: “That means citizens will allow the state to do almost anything it wants so long as it justifies its actions in terms of ‘national security.’ In effect, the Constitution and the rule of law itself go out the window, along with our liberties.”

There is also Bob Barr, with whom I once joined at a conference of the American Conservative Union to criticize sections of the Patriot Act. With customary clarity, he now states: “We believe in traditional conservative values, like accountability… To date, for example, the Justice Department has failed to disclose how many U.S. citizens’ homes, businesses or records have been secretly searched under the Patriot Act provisions, such as Section 213 (‘the sneak and peek’ provision), or even how many National Security Letter searches (without any judicial supervision) have been executed.”

[…]

These James Otises of our time are in sharp contrast to such critics of the administration as bumptious show-boaters Al Franken, Michael Moore and the exclamatory, one-dimensional TV commercials of MoveOn.org. Meanwhile, the most visible leaders of the opposition Democratic Party — Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean — do not seriously and persistently address the erosion of our civil liberties with the penetrating insistence of conservative libertarians.

Also see this piece by Ivan Eland.