The Absurd Report

SideBear: If [tag]Congress proved one thing this past week as to their ability to handle what’s important, they went on recess even though the FISA legislation expires at midnight tonight putting the country at risk from terrorism.

Once again partisanship trumps ALL else by putting our national security and the welfare of the nation needlessly at risk.

When the Clock Strikes Midnight, We Will Be Significantly Less Safe By Andrew C. McCarthy

The Democrats’ FISA talking points are nonsense.

According to top Democrats, the expiration of the Protect America Act (PAA) when the clock strikes midnight Sunday is no big deal. Our ability to monitor foreign threats to national security, they assure us, will be completely unaffected.

This is about as dumb a talking point as one can imagine. And it is just as demonstrably false.

Think for a moment about Tuesday’s crucial Senate bill overhauling our intelligence law that Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to allow the House to consider before recessing Friday — for a vacation. (Democrats evidently had no time for national security, having exhausted themselves on such cosmic matters as a baseball pitcher’s alleged steroid use and unenforceable, unconstitutional contempt citations in a stale investigation into something that wasn’t a crime and that no one but MoveOn.org cares about any longer).

In a Senate controlled by the Democrats, the bill passed by an overwhelming 2-to-1 margin. To attract such numbers, the Bush administration (as I detailed yesterday) gave ground on critically important issues of executive power and expansion of the FISA court’s role.

Democrats surely did not want to give President Bush this legislative victory, and President Bush certainly did not want to cave on these issues. But both sides compromised precisely because they understood that failing to do so, failing to preserve current surveillance authority, would endanger the United States.

More from NRO Online

Sen. McConnell on the Expiration of Surveillance Authority Tonight

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has issued this statement:

What is most distressing is that the terrorists haven’t ceased their activities, but we’ve conceded the capability to fully track them because the House Democrat Leadership blocked a vote on a bipartisan solution and then chose to close up shop and go home without completing their work.

This is not a political contest, it is a live-fire situation. What we do—or in this case, don’t do—has consequences for our national security. At midnight, the country will be more at risk than it is today. And that risk will increase each day we don’t have a solution to this problem.”

Today’s presidential radio address:

“At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning a new attack on America. And Congress has no higher responsibility than ensuring we have the tools to stop them.”

To read the full address go here…