More Patriot Act Shenannigans
The House did not, as I wrongly predicted, easily pass the six-month extension of the Patriot Act worked out in the Senate compromise; instead, for reasons that aren’t clear to me at the moment, Republican James Sensenbrenner blocked the measure and the House passed a 1-month extension, which now has to go back to the Senate again…
UPDATE 5:30 p.m.: Although it’s difficult to find a good link (I guess all the reporters have already started their Christmas break), my best take is that Sensenbrenner is adopting the attitude of all or nothing at all, with the feeling that if the Act is worth extending it’s worth extending for the full four years. Apparently this latest move is to ensure that the debate over the Act is taken up again quickly.
Memo to Sensenbrenner…
I have no problem with your immigration bill… but YOU WILL LOSE ALL SUPPORT IF YOU KEEP FARTING AROUND WITH THE PATRIOT ACT!!!
…
Perhaps we’re misreading his intentions here – if he’s holding it up for the sake of forcing the Dem’s hand in passing the act the way it stands presently (with no potentially weakening alterations), that’d be OK by me.
The GOP really needs to hold the other party’s feet to the fire on this one – if they don’t like the ACT the way it’s currently construed, then by all means let’s see them try a filibuster.
I’m confused, but I’ll give Sensenbrenner the benefit of the doubt until January when we can hash this out some more. Maybe this was a co-ordinated move? We’ll see.
I’m pretty much done for the weekend, so Merry Christmas Mark! Have a great one–AE
The clip on NBC Nightly News had Sensenbrenner saying something along the lines of “they nearly screwed up everybody’s Christmas, and if we extend it for 6 months, they won’t take it up until the last week in June, so they’ll be screwing up everybody’s Independence Day.” My paraphrase, of course. So it looks like he just thought we would be better served if the Senate took it back up when they got back.
Thanks GCB, and a Merry Christmas to you, AE, and to all of you guys and gals!…