“I don’t have to listen to your phone calls to know what you’re doing,” said the senator, mounting a vigorous defense of civil liberties against government intrusion. “If I know every single phone call you made, I’m able to determine every single person you talk to. I can get a pattern about your life that is very, very intrusive.”

That must have been Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., right? Perhaps Ron Wyden, D-Ore.? In fact, that was Joe Biden, now our Vice President, speaking in 2006, on a USA Today report that the NSA was broadly gathering data on Americans’ phone calls. Some people experience changes of heart; others, changes of party in the White House.