The Feld-Blog

For those of you keeping track, you may remember that last month (November 16th) I lamented that British Parliament was able to swat down overreaching and obtrusive anti-terrorist legislation while American Congress was not. Well apparently that has changed. Although the House renewed the Patriot Act, the Senate stopped it flat in its tracks with a bipartisan filibuster. In the cloture movement 47 Senators voted against renewing the Patriot Act. BRAVO!

Kudos as well to Senator Russell Feingold (D-Wisconsin), pictured above, for leading the charge. The only member of the Senate with the foresight to have voted against the Patriot Act the first time around (in a 99-1 vote – talk about chutzpah) seems to have attracted some followers. It has taken a little more than four years for Congress to realize that perhaps giving the FBI the right to request secret warrants from secret courts to tap everyone’s cell phone in an 20 mile radius because one person who lives or works in that area has been to the Middle East recently might be overstepping the bounds of citizens civil rights. OK, I am exaggerating of course, but is scary how little exaggeration is there. Roving wire taps really are allowed. Secret court documents are not available to anyone but the FBI and those with security clearance. And as we’ve seen from Bush’s proclivity to hold ordinary citizens at GITMO and in overseas detention centers along with the legitimate terrorists, it doesn’t take much for the Bush Administration to assume someone is a terrorist.

If the Patriot Act had come up for a legitimate vote, it might have passed. 52 Senators voted to end cloture. When the filibuster is all that stands between the citizens of the United States and legislation that would cripple civil rights, it is a wonder that Majority Leader Frist is still threatening to wipe it off the face of the books. Though I understand he must be frustrated that the filibuster has been invoked and threatened so often during this administration, perhaps he and Bush should take a look at their own hands and see what exactly it is they are doing that is inspiring so many filibusters. Congress is largely the same. Relatively few seats changed hands in the last Senate election so most sitting Senators sat under the first GWB administration and many under Clinton and before. Perhaps, then, it is not Senatorial whimsy that has caused the uptick in filibusters, but Bush’s slap-in-the-face, cronyism-infused appointments and ridiculously overreaching legislation. If you try to shove pure conservative ideology written down in bill form though a senate with 45 Democratic Senators, you shouldn’t be surprised when you meet powerful and determined opposition.