Patrick Leahy: “we are at an interesting point. We have seen an enormous amount of work done by the distinguished senior Senator from…”

“we are at an interesting point. We have seen an enormous amount of work done by the distinguished senior Senator from Pennsylvania, who has worked in good faith with members on both sides of the aisle; and, I might say, it has been done with a great deal of work by myself, but also it has been done with a great deal of work by those who both supported cloture and opposed cloture. Now, one thing that should unite all of us is our opposition to terrorism. We would not serve in this body, actually in this building that faced a possible devastating terrorist attack, if we did not care both for our country and for the Senate and for the Capitol. But there are ways of securing our liberties and ways in which it can appear we are but, instead, we are taking them away. We saw this amazing step in today's news, where Americans are being spied on, not through any court order, not through any act of Congress, not with any oversight, not with any check and balance, but simply by a stroke of the pen of the President, following the advice of the same people in the Department of Justice who advised him that torture was legal. We have rejected the concept that torture is legal. We should reject the concept that we can have Americans spy on Americans with no checks and balances in a free and democratic Nation such as ours. What we want--and I have written many parts of the PATRIOT Act--and what we should have is checks and balances.…”