Sunday, Sunday, Sunday !!!!

By Robert Wenzel

This is big.

Mitch McConnell has scheduled a rare Sunday session for the Senate. This is how important the session is, as reported by NYT:

The Senate is heading for a tense and unusual Sunday showdown over the expiring antiterrorism surveillance powers of the National Security Agency, and Senator Mitch McConnell, five months into his tenure as majority leader, has a lot on the line.

Despite strong bipartisan support in the Senate for a House-passed overhaul, Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, has held out against the legislation in favor of an extension of current programs even as a federal appeals court recently questioned the constitutionality of the N.S.A. approach.

The Senate ended up in a post-midnight stalemate over the N.S.A. just before its Memorial Day recess. Now Mr. McConnell has called his colleagues back for the first Sunday meeting since late 2013, to try to untangle the mess just hours before a June 1 deadline.

The outcome is far from certain.

Rand Paul has just issued a press release where he states:

Tomorrow, we will come back with just hours left before the NSA illegal spying powers expire...So tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program.

People who know more about this than I do tell me that procedurally he can  force the expiration.

This may explain the recent "uncoordinated" Rand Super Pac video:



If Rand does indeed force an expiration of the NSA spy program, he will be going up against all of the establishment.

Why would Rand force such an expiration? Theories abound.

The most likely is that he realizes his campaign is floundering and he needs his father's followers to start kicking in money. To date, Ron Paul money going to Rand has been extremely limited.

A stand against the NSA would do the trick.

Whatever the reason for Rand's willingness to force an expiration of the spy program, we  must cheer him on in this effort. But I don't trust Rand one bit as far as his carrying the torch for a full libertarian agenda.

As I outlined yesterday, his new book is an abomination of sneaky interventionist advocacy. But, I am always willing to forge an alliance on any issue with anyone who is attempting to slowdown the state. I have even supported the evil Elizabeth Warren in her role in attempting to kill TPP.

That said, an alliance on a particular issue certainly does not mean full across the board support for a politician. Politicians, unless they prove otherwise on issue after issue, should be evaluated on a position by position basis, with support only on issues that will in some manner advance liberty.

I don't think Rand comes close on most issues in taking positions that advance liberty. If he actually does force  the expiration of  NSA spy powers. I will support him. He must be trained like Pavlov's dog that the only way he is going to get libertarian support (and money) is when he takes clear, non-muddied, libertarian positions.

 Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher at EconomicPolicyJournal.com and at Target Liberty. He is also author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomics