CHRISTIE’S DANGEROUS THOUGHT

One reason why Democrats are in power and Republicans aren’t is the zest with which Republicans attack each other, rather than Democrats.

We’ve seen this for months in the internecine "debate" over immigration reform, which has consisted more of name calling than an exchange of ideas or an airing of concerns.  Each faction has been demanding the excommunication of the other. 

Now we see a nasty split forming over national security policy.  New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, took a shot a "libertarian foreign policy" over the weekend, and at its principal advocate, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, another potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate.

"This strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties right now and making big headlines I think is a very dangerous thought," Gov. Christie said at the Aspen (Colo) Security Forum.

"The next attack that comes, that kills thousands of people as a result, people are going to be looking back on the people who are having this intellectual debate and wondering whether they put…(he left the sentence unfinished)."

Gov. Christie didn’t bring up Sen. Paul in his initial remarks.  When asked if he was criticizing Sen. Paul, the governor said: "You can name any number of people and he’s one of them."

Rep. Peter King, R-NY, compared GOP libertarians to "the anti-war, left-wing Democrats of the 1960s that nominated George McGovern," on CNN’s "State of the Union" program Sunday.

It was "madness" for Sen. Paul to have hailed as a whistleblower Edward Snowden, the former contractor for the National Security Agency who revealed the existence of the NSA’s massive data collection programs on American citizens to a British newspaper, Rep. King said.

What prompted the attacks on libertarians in the Republican Party generally and Sen. Paul specifically was the narrow rejection in the House last week of an amendment offered by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich, to remove the legal authority for one of those programs.

The Amash amendment would have amended the Patriot Act to prevent the NSA from collecting telephone metadata (phone numbers called and length of each call) on U.S. citizens.  It failed, 205-217.  Republicans opposed it, 94-134.  Despite strong opposition from the White House, Democrats supported it, 111-83.

"It was "absolutely disgraceful that so many Republicans voted to defund the NSA program which has done so much to protect our country," Rep. King said. "This is an isolationist streak that’s in our party that goes totally against the party of Eisenhower and Reagan and Bush."

By making so sweeping an attack on libertarians, Gov. Christie "has picked a fight without a strategy," said Ramesh Ponnuru, a conservative who has written admiringly of the New Jersey governor.

Libertarians are an important part of the Republican coalition, and many Republicans who aren’t down the line libertarians share some of their concerns, Mr. Ponnuru said.

"These Republicans can be persuaded to overcome their libertarian instincts on many issues — but not by being told that they shouldn’t have  these instincts in the first place," he  said.

In his criticism of Gov. Christie’s criticism, Mr. Ponnuru maligns libertarians, too.  Rep. Amash, 33, has been described as "the next Ron Paul," which would be troublesome if it were true.  The former Texas Congressman was notoriously unwilling to support U.S. military interventions abroad for any reason, or to vote money for national defense.

But in an interview with Reason magazine in March, Rep. Amash rejected "isolationism," said he supported the U.S. military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and favored stronger sanctions against Iran.

Ron Paul is Rand’s father, which makes some suspect his foreign policy views may be as extreme as Dad’s. But evidence so far is lacking. 

"I don’t mind spying on terrorists," Sen. Paul said in response to Gov. Christie.  "I just don’t like spying on all Americans."

That’s perfectly reasonable, and it’s a view shared by most Americans.  And Peter King take note: in his Farewell Address, President Eisenhower sounded a lot like Rand Paul:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.  We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."

It’s Chris Christie and Peter King who have "dangerous thoughts" regarding our freedom, not Dwight Eisenhower and Rand Paul.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.