By Ezra
Rich Lowry has a column on "demagoguery and the PATRIOT Act," in which he writes:
Janet Reno has endorsed the Patriot Act. The 9/11 Commission has called it a vital tool in the war on terror. The Justice Department maintains that it was crucial to breaking up terror cells in Seattle, Portland, Ore., Buffalo, N.Y., Virginia, and Detroit. Key provisions of the act were set to expire at the end of 2005, and should by all rights have — with perhaps a few minor tweaks — been renewed with something like universal acclamation.
Instead, Senate Democrats filibustered its renewal (with the support of four Republican defectors), and when Republicans didn't have 60 votes to break it, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid exulted to a group of supporters, "We killed the Patriot Act." That's like saying: "I've got great news. I just set law enforcement back years and reinstated the arbitrary constraints that kept us from having any chance of preventing 9/11. Drinks are on me!"
Here's Reid's actual position:
“Earlier this year, after negotiations that went late into the night, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill to reauthorize and improve the PATRIOT Act. Soon after, the full Senate passed this bill by unanimous consent. Every Senator – Democrat and Republican – approved this reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act. Every one of us is firmly on record in support of giving law enforcement the appropriate tools to fight terrorism.
“Unfortunately, the spirit of bipartisanship that led to passage of the Senate bill did not prevail in conference. Not long after the House appointed conferees, Democratic negotiators were shut out of the discussions. The final bill was written by Republican conferees working behind closed doors with Justice Department lawyers. The result was an imbalanced conference report that departed significantly from the bipartisan Senate bill.[...]
Fortunately, we do not face the choice of accepting this conference report or allowing the sixteen PATRIOT Act provisions to expire. I am a cosponsor of S. 2082, a bill introduced by Senator Sununu and others to enact a three-month extension of the expiring PATRIOT Act authorities, so that we can take the time we need to produce a good bipartisan bill that will have the confidence of the American people.
So who's the demagogue, the senator attempting to pass a three month expansion of the Act in order to implement the unanimously approved version of the bill or the right wing columnist omitting this information in order to smear Democrats?
