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Bob barr dick armey join aclu Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2002-11-25-main-editorial_x.htmhttp://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2002-11-25-main-editorial_x.htm
11/25/2002 - Updated 08:22 PM ET
Not so strange bedfellows
For years, Republican Congressmen Dick Armey of Texas and Bob Barr of Georgia have been the darlings of the conservative movement. Both are known as sharp-tongued partisans who led the charge to impeach President Clinton and who have voting records that appall liberals.
So fellow conservatives might be shocked to learn that after leaving Congress this year, both men are becoming consultants to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), long assailed by those on the political right as the spearhead of ultraliberal causes. In fact, during the 1988 campaign, President Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, attacked opponent Michael Dukakis as "a card-carrying member" of the ACLU, code for accusing the Democrat of being soft on criminals.
But apparent ironies aside, in signing on with the nation's oldest civil-liberties group, Armey and Barr send an important message too often overlooked by both conservatives and liberals: The battle to defend individual freedoms from government encroachment transcends partisan politics. It is a fight in which everyone across the ideological spectrum has a vital stake, even when the causes the ACLU champions are unpopular.
Indeed, Barr and the ACLU have worked together since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing over shared concerns that the government would exploit fears of new violence to infringe on the Constitution's protection against unwarranted searches and arrests. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Armey fought alongside the ACLU against proposals for a national ID card and a neighborhood terrorist-tip system, viewing them as threats to privacy rights.
The ACLU has been waging such fights since its founding in 1920, after Woodrow Wilson's attorney general launched a campaign against radicals and aliens, detaining many without charge. Ultimately, most of the cases collapsed for lack of evidence.
In later years, civil libertarians have opposed other government actions that compromised individual rights. Among them: the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II, segregation of blacks, censorship of political pamphlets and books and the refusal to grant parade permits to members of the Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan.
By representing diverse groups, the ACLU infuriates conservatives and liberals alike. That's because defense of the doctrine of "liberty and justice for all" is blind to narrow interests, something both Armey and Barr well know.
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