Republican moderates calling for a return to the rule of law

Pete Abel over at Central Sanity drafts a letter to prospective Republican candidates and their leaders. Here's an excerpt:

We believe in the U.S. Constitution, its checks and balances, and importantly, the protections it affords our states and citizens. We further believe those protections should be consistently applied, both in times of war and of peace. The war on terror should not be a war on habeas corpus.

That paragraph certainly would've been a minimum standard for any American politician prior to 2001.

Unfortunately, now we've got people like this:

"I am a strong supporter of the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment and civil liberties. But you have no civil liberties if you are dead." (Senator Pat Roberts, former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman)

and this:

"Civil libertarians are in a state of denial." (Judge Richard Posner, author of Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency)

And of course this:

"Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do." (Rudy Giuliani, frontrunning candidate for the Republican presidential nomination)

Update: I'd almost forgotten about this one:

“There is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution.” (Attorney General Alberto Gonzales)

and this one:

"There ought to be limits to freedom" (Governor George Bush)

Really, you could keep this up all day

h/t GreenDreams