Once again, people are being distracted from the NSA spying story. The blame starts with The Guardian, which headlined Congressman John Lewis's words about the whistleblower rather than his much more important words about the NSA spying. And far too many people are following that lead.
Lewis has a unique stature in this country, matched by few people inside or outside of government, but particularly by people inside it. His opinions carry commensurate weight. As others have pointed out, you can read the article here, and you can read Lewis's response to the mischaracterizations in that article here.
I suggest that anyone reading the article ignore the headline and anything written by the newspaper itself, and just focus on what Lewis actually said. In the quotation marks. He does not say he was misquoted. But this is the only quote that really matters:
Many of us have some real, real, problems with how the government has been spying on people.
That's what matters. I personally hope that having secured asylum, Snowden himself now fades from public view. I hope that newspapers and bloggers all allow Snowden to fade from public view. This is what matters:
Many of us have some real, real, problems with how the government has been spying on people.
And the one other genuinely relevant part of
The Guardian article was its reporting on this: Lewis voted for the Amash-Conyers amendment, that would have reined in the NSA spying.
Many of us have some real, real, problems with how the government has been spying on people.