In a sweet victory for the administration, the Senate voted 89-10 to renew the Patriot Act. Only Democrats opposed the measure. Harry Reid, who once boasted proudly of having “killed” the Patriot Act, now voted meekly for it.
Note, though, how the Associated Press does whatever it can to insert pro-Democrat themes into a story about a Bush triumph:
The 89-10 vote marked a bright spot in President Bush’s troubled second term as his approval ratings dipped over the war in Iraq and his administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
What does any of that have to do with today’s vote? Nothing at all; the AP just threw it in. Then there is this:
For months, their tough-on-terror image has been tarnished by the revelation that the president authorized a secret domestic wiretapping program. The report in December gave Democrats ammunition for their charge that the Bush administration had run amok in its zeal to root out terrorists.
Huh? How did the secret wiretapping program “tarnish” the administration’s “tough-on-terror image”? It didn’t. It enhanced it, and the public has solidly backed the administration’s position. And what’s this about Democrats charging that the administration has “run amok”? I don’t recall any Democrats saying that; I think the AP reporter, Laurie Kellman, is speaking for herself.
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