Democrats plan to filibuster Patriot Act

Washington Times reports Senate Democrats say they will filibuster the extension of the USA Patriot Act, which passed the House yesterday on a bipartisan vote,

After seeing how well the election in Iraq is going they fear that they only way they can hurt the US, and cause us to be attacked again on US soil is to disable the Patriot Act

despite some concerns that provisions of the bill trample civil liberties by giving law enforcement too much power. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said he will not demand that his entire caucus support a filibuster but said that he certainly would.

He knows that many Red State Senators would lose in 2006 if they are seen responsible for preventing the Patriot Act from being extended.

"Because of 9/11, we rushed to judgment on a number of provisions in that bill," he said. "We certainly shouldn't do that this time."

You have had 4 years, how much more time do you need?

But Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican, said after the 251-174 House vote that the legislation "provides essential tools to protecting the American people and winning the war on terror by detecting, disrupting and dismantling terrorist activity before it occurs." The real fight will be later this week in the Senate, when Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, plans to try to force an end to debate on the bill so it can be voted on before Congress adjourns for the year. The Patriot Act, which was modified in the bill now under consideration, expires at the end of the year.

Jonathan R blogged Always seeking to weaken America, whether it was unilateral nuclear disarmament or opposition to other weapons systems that not only forced the U.S.S.R.'s disintegration but also established the U.S. military as the finest and most lethal in the world, Democrats are at it again. This time, they want to take away the intelligence and law enforcement tools our government relies upon to combat terrorism. Evidently, Democrats want to revert to 9/10/01 and believe that terrorism is no longer a threat, or at least not one more serious than, say, drug dealing. That's why they want to filibuster the renewal of the Patriot Act. By all means, let's have that debate.