Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), with help of the Tea Party, is going to sue President Barack Obama over the National Security Agency’s domestic spying program, another desperate attempt in a long string of failed Obama attacks since the 2012 elections.
Paul, Tea Party group FreedomWorks, and Virginia’s former attorney general and Virginia gubernatorial loser Ken Cuccinelli have rallied to organize a lawsuit against President Obama for “his” domestic spying program. The right-wing group is suing on the basis that the spying program violates Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches, which it does. But the timing of the suit is questionable.
The lawsuit specifically named Obama, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander, and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey as the defendants. The lawsuit’s timing raises serious suspicions about the genuineness of Paul’s reasoning behind the lawsuit.
If the domestic spying program was such a concern among Republicans, why would they wait so long to file what Paul said would be “the biggest lawsuit in American history”?
Around the time that whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked the NSA’s spying program, the GOP had their hands full with trying to pin other scandals on the president, e.g. the IRS targeting scandal and Benghazi scandal. Obama isn’t completely innocent here, however. He knew about the program and let it continue, but it’s not his baby.
The domestic spying program began under the W. Administration, as did the Patriot Act, which enjoyed overwhelming support from the GOP. The Patriot Act and the NSA spying program are Republican-instituted measures, but the current crop of Republicans are placing past GOP actions at the feet of Obama.
Coming on the heels of a Congressional Budget Office “bombshell” against Obamacare, which the GOP sloppily interpreted as proof positive that Obamacare was a job killer, this lawsuit is just the GOP is trying to pull another anti-Obama-rabbit out of a hat.
Josh is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. Follow him on Twitter @dnJdeli.
