Sen. John Cornyn: "None of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead"

With leadership like this, we might as well give up now (via the Progress Report):

“None of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a former judge and close ally of the president who sits on the Judiciary Committee.

Russ Feingold's response was more than appropriate:

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who has led a bipartisan filibuster against a reauthorization of the Patriot Act, quoted Patrick Henry, an icon of the American Revolution, in response: “Give me liberty or give me death.”

He called Cornyn’s comments “a retreat from who we are and who we should be.”

Comments

[News Reference]

It's April, 2009, and Republicans have conveniently rediscovered civil liberties.

What did it take for Republicans to rediscover civil liberties? The fear that the right wing enabled surveillance state might be turned on right wing extremists.