Now here's a Republican that even Imbroglio can embrace: Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia!

Check out this story:
[url]http://www.coxnews.com/newsservice/stories/2001/1001-BARR.html[/url]

WASHINGTON -- Bob Barr's battle over civil liberties has a single, simple foundation: consistency.

"These are the very same arguments I made back in '96," said Barr, who now is opposing portions of a federal anti-terrorism proposal he believes go too far.

And if his position against giving government more law-enforcement power makes for what some see as unusual alliances -- Barr and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force on the same side, for example, and Barr quoted in an American Civil Liberties Union press release -- he's not troubled.

Nor does it matter to him that some on the right see the man recently referred to by Time as "Georgia's state-of-the-art conservative" on the wrong side of the issue.

"I simply try and be consistent and leave people's characterizations to themselves," said Barr, a Cobb County Republican now in his fourth term in the House of Representatives.

Whether it is law enforcement utilizing cameras to record cars running stoplights or the recent proposals from U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to expand the scope of wiretaps or the idea of a national identification card, Barr sees the same problem: the growth of government power in recent years.

"Each incremental increase becomes more and more significant because there's so little personal freedom left," he said. "I guess I have a tendency to more jealously guard what's left."

That was why he bored in on Justice Department witnesses a week ago at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Why, he wanted to know, was it necessary "without proper hearings, without due deliberation and input, to dramatically change provisions of U.S. criminal law and criminal procedure across the board?"

Eric The(SendMoreOfTheseToCongress)Hun[>]:)]