Published: February 20, 2008 08:10 pm         

Senator wins round one in war over Real ID card

CHARLESTON — Round One in the battle over the federal government’s Real ID card goes to Sen. Clark Barnes.

After two airings of his bill to block West Virginia’s participation in the controversial ID card, the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure committee agreed Wednesday to endorse it.

“I think that our privacy issues overshadow our bureaucratic concerns,” Barnes, R-Randolph, said after the vote.

“If we continue to move this through and pass it out, it sends a message to Washington that we’re tired of the interference in our everyday lives.”

Barnes, a conservative Republican, formed a rare alliance with the American Civil Liberties Union in supporting the bill, both out of concern that the federal government was intruding too far in people’s common practices, such as spending habits and medical treatment.

“From the Patriot Act right on down to the Real ID Act, it’s time that we as people stood up to the government and said enough is enough,” Barnes said.

If Real ID becomes adopted in every state, Barnes asked, what step will the federal government take next in the name of security?

Barnes said he had no problems with specific monitoring, such as the state agreed to do a few years ago in tracking purchases of common cold medications used as key ingredients in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine.

“There’s a good reason for that,” he said. “That was justified in that we’re trying to wage a war on a drug that’s very debilitating. At the same time, we’re keeping records on people that are innocently purchasing Sudafed. No one is too concerned about that.”

Yet, when ordinary purchases are planned to be fed into a national database, “that’s where we have the problem,” Barnes said.

Barnes said his concern is that once Real ID is activated nationwide, the government may attempt to look even deeper into the lives of its citizens.

“Benjamin Franklin said those who trade liberty for security deserve neither liberty nor security,” he said.

Barnes acknowledged his opposition to the Patriot Act and Real ID won’t endear him to GOP leaders.

What if they give him the boot?

“At least they won’t have my private information when they do it,” he laughed.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com