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World Affairs Brief, May 27, 2011 Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World. Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief (http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com)

Rand Paul has become the most visible defender of liberty in the Senate. He has fought this battle against the Patriot Act almost single-handed. But the problem is deeper than the Patriot Act. Check out this exchange between Anderson Cooper and Paul on the Senate habit of evading debate on every key issue of constitutional law (including the illegal war in Libya):

Senator Rand Paul: “We go week after week in the Senate and do nothing. I feel like sometimes I should return my check because I go up, they do no votes and no debate. Look at this horrendous debt crisis – we don’t debate that either.

Anderson Cooper: “Really, you feel like that? You feel like you’re not doing anything there?”

Paul: “Yes. I feel… Absolutely. We go up week to week and there’s no debate in Congress. No debate in the Senate. We sit idly by. Some weeks we vote on two or three non-controversial judges and we go back home… I’m trying to get a vote on Libya. They say they don’t have time, I was told that when I wanted to bring up my resolution on Libya – which I did force them to, but I had to kinda capture the floor… and they weren’t too happy with me because I used some parliamentary procedures to gain access to the floor, and they came running down to the floor. They were apoplectic that I had taken over the floor, and the thing is that we should be having these debates on the floor – they don’t want to have any debate. I’m asking right now to vote on Libya – I have a resolution saying we’re in violation of the War Powers Act. It’s hard for me to get the floor unless I somehow sneak on the floor when no one’s looking to try to get a vote. Why would we not want to debate great Constitutional questions? When I ran for office, that’s what I thought – there will be great and momentous debates on the floor. We don’t have any because they prevent the debates from ever even beginning.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8-WpUQ3DAo]Sen. Rand Paul on AC360 with Anderson Cooper

Uploaded by on May 23, 2011

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