Schweitzer Demands Burns 'Stand With Montana' & Vote Against The Patriot Act

The Associated Press reports that Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) took a bold step this evening demanding GOP Sen. Conrad Burns (MT) "stand with Montana" and vote against the Patriot Act. There's a lot of talk among Beltway elites who think the American people are stupid and just see things in terms of "national security" vs. "no national security" - but that's not the case, especially in the Rocky Mountain region where people value their privacy. Americans are smart - and they know that the new Patriot Act being considered in the Senate is nothing but a crude power grab and an attempt to legalize the invasion of people's privacy.

You may recall, Montana's legislature this year overwhelmingly passed a strongly-worded resolution chastising the Patriot Act as an infringement on civil liberties. And it's a good bet that President Bush's willingness to break laws in ordering domestic spying hasn't helped change perceptions about this administration's attitude towards Americans' right to privacy.

That's why it's inspiring to see Schweitzer use his significant political capital to demand our U.S. Senator represent the people here - and not just do whatever the White House says. As Schweitzer says in the article, "This is going to be tough for [Burns], because I understand the president wants him to vote another way. But he is not the senator from Texas, he is the senator from Montana."

Stay tuned to see what Burns does. He's already in a huge amount of hot water for taking cash from indicted lobbyists and then switching his votes - and if he goes out and supports further infringing on people's civil liberties, he may face a real firestorm.

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