Two Stand-up Guys for Liberty

by Nat Hentoff
This article appeared in the Trentonian on December 26, 2009.

Shortly after the horrendous crime of 9/11, I underlined the abuses of our constitutional liberties in the Patriot Act as it hurtled through Congress. During that steamrollered legislative process, I was briefly encouraged by a bitingly sardonic dissent from House Democrat David Obey of Wisconsin: "Why should we care? It's only the Constitution."

Someone did care and had the courage to say so publicly when others in Congress remained silent lest they be accused, during re-election campaigns, of being soft on terrorism. In the Senate, there was only a single vote against the Patriot Act, Democrat Russell Feingold, also of Wisconsin.

Obey and Feingold are both believers in the idea that dissent is patriotic. They have remained staunchly independent. Obey, now the third-most senior member of the House, is currently chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and characteristically, he is not automatically supporting President Obama's military buildup in Afghanistan.

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