Tennessean - Bush "...has only himself to blame" for Patriot Act failures

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051226/OPINION01/512260322/1008

Editorial
Monday, 12/26/05
Patriot Act extension allows for calm debate

Before its recess, Congress made a reasonable choice to extend the Patriot Act by five weeks, thus allowing more time for debate, but that doesn't change the fact that objectionable elements of the law should be removed. The Senate had given the law a six-month reprieve, but a late maneuver in the House shortened the extension to five weeks. That reduces the time for debate, but the principle of an extension is sound. Some provisions in the law would have expired at the end of the year if no action had been taken. But troubling aspects of the act, including provisions that give the government sweeping powers to obtain personal information, need further discussion. The extension will provide another opportunity to have that debate. While many members of Congress were eager to approve the Patriot Act's renewal, the compromise prevents Congress from a misguided rush to make permanent a law that has been flawed from the beginning.


President Bush has pushed for permanent renewal. He did not like efforts to filibuster the issue in the Senate. Yet the president and other members of the administration have only offered old arguments, exploiting people's fears, to sell their positions. Supporters of the president have said that an extension will not change the debate and that arguments will end up back where they are now. But the delay will provide an opportunity to further weigh the depths of investigative powers in the law. If the president does not like such scrutiny, he has only himself to blame.

The recent exposure of wiretapping and computer surveillance without court orders tipped the administration's hand on its willingness to investigate people aggressively. Concerns about the Patriot Act, where personal information is subject to government surveillance, intensified after the disclosure of the wiretap measures. The hearings expected soon in the Senate on the wiretap issues could put even more of a burden on the administration to justify broad powers in the Patriot Act.

The best that can be said about the extension is that leaders of both parties were willing to rise above the partisan aspects of the debate and give themselves more time to deliberate. The nation needs a good law to help fight terrorism. It does not need unnecessary intrusion into the lives of innocent people. The delay offers a chance to get it right.

and anything else Ashcroft or Gonzales or Yoo touched should be either burned, disinfected, or buried in a nuclear waste storage facility.