ACLU boss: We’re like the tea party

American Civil Liberties Union President Susan Herman says she’s concerned about her organization being branded as left-wing and went so far as to draw parallels between the civil rights group and the tea party movement.

“The ACLU is non-partisan. We’re not Democrats, we’re not Republicans,” Herman told POLITICO in an interview to promote her new book, “Taking Liberties.” “Probably more of our positions happen to coincide with more progressive, Democratic or liberal organizations, in terms of number of issues. But what I can tell you is that there are places where we agree with people who are right-wing libertarians.”

In some ways, Herman said, there was even an overlap between the ACLU and the tea party – at least in rhetoric.

“I think we are in total agreement with the tea party that the Constitution is our governing document. Our rhetoric is going to be very similar to the tea party’s in that we say we should get back to our fundamental constitutional principles,” said Herman. “We just have different interpretations of what the Constitution means.”

That said, Herman didn’t hesitate to quip about at least one Tea Party-backed Republican presidential candidate. “Michelle Bachmann said recently that the ACLU is controlling the CIA – and to that I say, ‘I wish!’ We wouldn’t have had as much torture if we had been,” Herman joked.

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 Read More at Politico By Tim Mak, Politico