Writing about yesterday’s narrow vote in the House to defeat an amendment that would have reined in the NSA’s vast spying of phone communications, Spencer Ackerman at the Guardian says a bipartisan coalition is now working to reset the balance between liberty and security.
A tally of the votes shows that a majority of Democrats voted in favor of the amendment. One of them, Barbara Lee, told the Guardian that the “stage was now set” to curb the NSA. “It was a great beginning – a first step,” she said. “I can tell you why I voted for it – and most Democrats have the same sentiment – we have to a balance between civil liberties and national security, and I believe this was a very carefully crafted and balanced amendment. Right now, we must rein in the NSA.”