In developments that carried a faint echo of the classic Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Sen. Rand Paul delivered on his promise to block an extension of aspects of the Patriot Act, singlehandedly if need be. Parts of the act expired at 12:01 a.m. today despite an overwhelming vote in the House and majority support in the Senate for a version of the law opposed by Paul. As reported by The New York Times, Paul used Senate rules to stretch the vote beyond a deadline Sunday — directly opposing the wishes of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a fellow Kentucky Republican who has endorsed Paul for president.
The maneuver stops the U.S. government from sweeping up vast quantities of phone records in the name of hunting for terrorists. The Senate insisted it would approve compromise legislation this week that would stop the government’s bulk collection, but transfer that instead to phone companies. In one of the strange-bedfellow moments in this story, the Tea Party and the ACLU were in agreement, supporting Rand’s position.
