Conservatives turn against anti-terror laws

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Since President Bush's election in 2000, the biggest fracture point in the conservative revolution has been the divide between the GOP's sizeable libertarian wing on one hand, and others who view "small government" as an expendable talking point in the face of war and other priorities.

The issue of civil liberties, especially concerns about growing surveillance under the "war on terror," have been a nagging stressor on this fracture for some time. This is especially true in the South, where suspicion of government intrusion doesn't know party affiliation, causing staunch conservatives like Bob Barr of Georgia to join hands with the ACLU over threats to privacy and other rights.

Now, with Republican in-fighting reaching new levels, the Washington Post reports that prominent conservatives are speaking out against anti-terror laws, especially thosethat could wrongly profile asylum-seekers from other countries:

Conservatives who supported President Bush's reelection have joined liberal groups in expressing outrage over his administration's broad use of anti-terrorism laws to reject asylum for thousands of people seeking refuge from religious, ethnic and political persecution. [...]

"It's outrageous," said Barrett Duke, vice president of public policy for the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. "I think it's essentially a reaction of fear to the current terrorist danger." The language in the laws, he added, is "a knee-jerk reaction."

How Congress responds will be closely watched by voters concerned about civil liberties -- Democrat, Republican and Independent.