Patriot Act Sails Through House

The House passed the Patriot Act extension today, on a 280-138 vote. The Associated Press tried valiantly to fit this overwhelming endorsement into its worldview, terming the vote a “cliffhanger.” The AP says that President Bush was “forced by filibuster to accept new curbs on law enforcement investigations,” but if you read far enough, you learn that those “curbs” are trivial.
What is most noteworthy, I think, is that two-thirds of Democrat Congressmen voted against allowing the FBI and the CIA to communicate, and using the same tools to combat terrorism that have been used for many years to fight organized crime–even though the Act has a proven track record of protecting Americans’ security. This is a weak record for the Democrats to run on in November.