Senate Votes 96-3 to Reject Sen. Feingold's Effort to Stall Patriot Act Renewal

In other news from Capitol Hill, the Senate is moving closer to renewing the Patriot Act. Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin is leading the effort to block renewal but he is receiving little support even from fellow Democrats. Feingold wants to set a four-year expiration date on provisions within the Act that allows government agents to force banks, libraries, Internet providers and others to hand over private records without a warrant. On Thursday, the Senate voted 96 to 3 to reject Feingold's efforts to stall the legislation. Only independent Senator Jim Jeffords and Democrat Robert Byrd backed Feingold.

What can we do? Are we too late again? I find it shocking that every Democrat except two (Feingold and Byrd) and the independent Jeffords voted against Feingold's fight. A Wisconsin radio station reports that Feingold claims that "he's being prevented from offering amendments to the Patriot Act."

... most supporters of a compromise seem to believe it makes improvements to the law's civil liberties protections, which have always been Feingold's principal concern. The Wisconsin Democrat made it clear; he doesn't share that view. "No amount of cosmetics is going to make this beast look any prettier," said Feingold.

Feingold said it appears Senate Republican leadership is blocking his attempts to offer amendments to the Patriot Act, and attempting to ram the bill through without amendment in what he called "a sham process."

Adding insult to injury is the Senate's defeat of a proper probe of domestic wiretapping. In the WaPo story, "Senate Rejects Wiretapping Probe": "The Bush administration helped derail a Senate bid to investigate a warrantless eavesdropping program yesterday after signaling it would reject Congress's request to have former attorney general John D. Ashcroft and other officials testify about the program's legality ..."

The perp? It's the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) -- boy, Pat, what a paleolithic Web site, uh like circa 1994 style, I'd say, dude. (By the way, he has NO press releases up on the wiretap decisions this past week.) The Los Angeles Times has a great piece, "Spying Inquiry Blocked by GOP": "The Senate intelligence chair buys time, saying the White House is open to legislation on Bush's surveillance program. Many are doubtful." And the New York Times editorial board reams Roberts good:

Is there any aspect of President Bush's miserable record on intelligence that Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is not willing to excuse and help to cover up?

Oh well. Nobody will pay much attention to that editorial.

And when one of the GOOD GUYS -- like Sen. Russ Feingold -- can't get more than THREE votes, um, over a HOT issue like the Patriot Act that galvanized states, counties, and cities small and large to pass resolutions criticizing the act, something is deeply wrong in D.C.

Let's see here. Searches brain for inspirational words. Hey, do you remember the story of my sister-in-law's hobby? She collects swizzle sticks from all over the world. I think that would be a productive diversion for us. Don't you?

Shall We Help Russ? Or, more pointedly focusing on the situation at hand, is there any way on god's green earth that we CAN help Russ Feingold at this point?