Senate confirms Brennan for CIA post
York Times notes that McCain was especially incensed by Paul’s suggestion that an American president would order the use of drones to kill political critics such as actress Jane Fonda, an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam war, or people sitting and sipping coffee at Starbucks.
“We need hearings,” McCain said. “But that conversation should not be about drones killing Jane Fonda and people in cafes. It should be all about what authority and what checks and balances should exist.”
His voice rising, McCain said: “To allege that the United States, our government, would drop a drone Hellfire missile on Jane Fonda, that brings the conversation from a serious discussion about U.S. policy into the realm of the ridiculous.”
Both McCain and Graham said that Paul and his filibuster took on an antiterrorism approach that Republicans have strongly supported in the past – and still do.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial this morning, titled “Rand Paul Drone Rant,” also took on Paul and his insinuations. The Journal gives Paul high marks for showmanship, adding: “If only his reasoning matched the showmanship.”
“Calm down, Senator,” the Journal advises, noting that it is true that the “U.S. government cannot randomly target American citizens on U.S. soil or anywhere else.” What the U.S. government “can do under the laws of war is target an ‘enemy combatant’ anywhere and anytime, including on U.S. soil. This includes a U.S. citizen who is also an enemy combatant [emphasis in original].” The Journal details how an individual is judged to be an enemy combatant, adding: “That does not include Hanoi Jane.”
The Journal says that under the law which guided the Obama administration in targeting and killing U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2011, al-Awlaki’s status was not different from that of the Nazis who came ashore on Long Island in the Second World War, and who were captured and executed.
The Journal’s editorial concludes:
The country needs more Senators who care about liberty, but if Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable libertarian kids in their college dorms. He needs to know what he’s talking about.
During a talking filibuster, the senators are not permitted to leave the Senate floor or use the bathroom. The filibustering senator or senators are not even allowed to sit down.
Paul’s filibuster was the ninth longest in the history of the Senate. The record holder for the longest filibuster ever is still Senator Strom Thurmond (R-South Carolina) who spoke without stopping for 24 hours and 18 minute against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
