Free Press = Putting American Lives at Risk

And so the rhetoric keeps on coming from Republicans, reinforcing their message of reality: let the government do whatever it wants. It will all be ok, really. Controlling the media is one spoke in the wheel of this reality. Interestingly, this conservative pundit serves up a spirited debate on the subject and a frank assessment of the creep of presidential power… first phone records, then banking records, then medical records… and then?

"For me it comes down to double standards... During the Clinton administration when I was sitting on the Judiciary Committee, I tell you what would have happened, we would have raised hell. We would not have trusted Bill Clinton with this type of unlimited power and we never would have trusted Janet Reno as attorney general with this type of unlimited power.

I told you back in May it started with the phone records and then it would lead to the bank records... We will find out if it leads to medical records and the records of people who possess guns. Again, the concern—what Republicans believed in 1994 was this - that the government that governs least, governs best. We trust people, we trust individuals, we trust communities more than we trust the federal government.

Well, that‘s all changed in the past 12 years. This federal government is getting bigger and bigger and more powerful all the time. I understand we are in a post 9/11 world, but at what point do we stop sliding down that slippery slope?

I agree with Thomas Jefferson. If the choice is between a government or a newspaper telling us what’s going on, I want that newspaper to always keep the federal government on their toes. Because I just don‘t trust people that want to accumulate more and more power.

You know who wants to accumulate more and more power? People in Washington. Doesn‘t matter if they are Republicans and Democrats. All that matters is that they‘re elected leaders. I have seen it time and time again and we always have to guard against it."