Marco Rubio: Surveillance State is Here to Stay, OK?

Helping limn the growing divide between more traditional conservatives and the nascent "liberty movement" in the GOP is this comment from likely presidential contender Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida--especially when contrasted with other likely presidential contender Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. 

From Huffington Post over the weekend:

Amid news that the National Security Agency has secretly been collecting the phone records of millions of Americans, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) suggested surveillance programs aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

"The threat that we face -- largely radical, political Islamists -- is probably a threat that is going to exist for the rest of our lifetimes. It's just the reality. We have to deal with it," Rubio told reporters Thursday, according to the Tampa Bay Times. "The world changed after 9/11, and it changed after Boston. It's just a struggle to try to balance our deeply held convictions of privacy and freedoms and liberties with our need to provide for national security."

Rubio -- a member of the Intelligence Committee -- said the programs are "part of intense congressional oversight" and something Congress "members are aware of."

"They get to review from time to time and see how it's being applied," Rubio said.

Well, that's certainly a relief, that the defenders of our Constitution who just think this is the way things are now get to sort of hear how things are.

Rand Paul has had a different attitude. And I hope that matters in 2016.