(AP) Patriot Act's Future in Doubt in Senate

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/patriot_act;_ylt=AotGM2fooVHhhBbAspBgLDms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--
Patriot Act's Future in Doubt in Senate

By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago

WASHINGTON - The Senate scrapped a Democratic-led effort to renew the USA Patriot Act for just three months, increasing prospects that provisions the administration considers indispensable to the war on terrorism may soon expire.

"The House of Representatives opposes such an extension and the president will not sign such an extension," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told his colleagues in a floor showdown Friday as lawmakers scurried to finish business for the year. From the White House, Bush's spokesman echoed Frist as they sought to give a boost to efforts to renew provisions of the law that are set to expire Dec. 31.

The Senate was still weighing a proposed accord with the House to extend the expiring 16 provisions of the law enacted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. But that compromise appeared to lack the necessary votes to succeed.

"Should we take a step forward in making America safer or should we go back to the pre-9/11 days when terrorists slip through the cracks?" said Frist, R-Tenn. "A nation in fear cannot be a nation that's free.".....

......The failure to renew the provisions would be "interpreted by our enemies as somehow inviting or even enabling further terrorist attacks on U.S. soil," Sen. Orrin Hatch (news, bio, voting record), R-Utah, said.

But the critics, who include senators with such wide-ranging views as Democrat Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Republican Larry Craig of Idaho, say they don't want the Patriot Act to expire — they just want enough time to improve the bill to the point where it doesn't infringe on American liberties.

"Continued good-faith negotiation will result in solving the problems in a way that will be acceptable to a vast majority of this body and will not in any way diminish the ability of our law enforcement and intelligence organizations to do their job," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., one of the original Democratic sponsors of the Patriot Act.

Congress passed the Patriot Act overwhelmingly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The law expanded the government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers.

I thought the most interesting part of the article was at the end:


White House allies said they preferred to let the provisions expire and hold Democrats responsible in next year's midterm elections rather than let opponents whittle away at the law.


Not that I am surprised that they put political campaigning ahead of the nation's security, but does that really mean Congress is going to let the temporary provisions expire? That would be the best Christmas, I mean, holiday present ever!