Last Friday in the debate, Kerry lambasted Bush for approving of "sneak and peek" searches that the Patriot Act grants to law enforcement. Check this out:
About "Sneak and peek"One of the good things about going to school is that you learn things. In a course I am taking now, we had to read the book Terrorism: Informing the Public, which is a report of a conference held by the McCormick Tribune Foundation in early 2001. You can order the book for free from the Foundation, still, I think.
Anyway, there was a passage in the book I found pretty interesting, from a chapter entitled "Terrorism in a Free Society." The speaker is Kate Martin, a civil liberties lawyer, a former ACLU lawyer. She says this in her talk:
In 1994, for the first time, Congress authorized secret searches of Americans' homes and papers in the name of national security, so that if the FBI obtains what's called a FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrant from the court on the grounds that you are suspected of being a foreign agent, it has the authority to enter your house, photograph your papers, duplicate your computer hard drive, and never let you know it's been there.
In other words, "sneak and peek" has existed since 1994, before President Bush held elected office (he was elected Texas governor in 1994, so he took office in 1995). The President that signed this legislation was President Clinton. And of course, John Kerry was serving in the Senate. So there should be a record. Searching Thomas, it seems that the "sneak and peek" provision under FISA was a separate bill proposed as part of improvements to counterintelligence measures. The whole of this bill was later incorporated into another bill on national competitiveness. This bill was passed in the Senate by a roll call vote, 59-40 (1 not voting). In the voting record, we find:
Kerry (D-MA), Yea
Interestingly, almost all of the Yea's are Democrats, and all but one Nay is a Republican. At any rate, Kerry voted for "sneak and peek" from it's first appearance in US law, and he voted for it in the Patriot Act. And now - now he is offended by it. He has a record, and he can run, but he can't hide from it.
www.overpressure.com/archives/week_2004_10_03.html#001084Call me crazy, but I am seeing a recurring pattern with Kerry's rhetoric. Everything he seems to criticize, he once held a different position on in the past.