Timing Is Everything

A few days ago, Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold was considering a filibuster against the bill reauthorizing the Patriot Act. He was the only senator to vote against it the first time around, and he was hoping that he could get a few more people on his side this time. To be sure, it was clear that he wouldn't be alone, but whether he could sustain a filibuster was very much in doubt.

But then The New York Times broke a story it had been sitting on for a year. The President had, by executive order signed in 2002, allowed the National Security Agency to spy on American citizens. The NSA routinely carried out international spying, but domestic spying is a whole other matter. Despite the fact that "Administration officials are confident that existing safeguards are sufficient to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans," to question the legality of the situation is the least response one might have. The Washington Post followed up this morning, making the potential violations of law more explicit.

Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said, . . . "This is as shocking a revelation as we have ever seen from the Bush administration. It is, I believe, the first time a president has authorized government agencies to violate a specific criminal prohibition and eavesdrop on Americans."

Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she is "dismayed" by the report.

"It's clear that the administration has been very willing to sacrifice civil liberties in its effort to exercise its authority on terrorism, to the extent that it authorizes criminal activity," Fredrickson said.

Apparently that was enough to sober up a few more senators and to keep the filibuster alive. Chuck Schumer said, "I went to bed undecided, but today's revelation that the government has listened in on thousands of phone conversations is shocking and has greatly influenced my vote." Frist could only get 52 senators to vote to end the filibuster when he needed 60.

This doesn't kill the reauthorization bill, it just delays the vote. One of the main Bush Administration arguments in favor of the Patriot Act was that we could trust them not to take advantage of its provisions to sidestep normal procedures. We've had plenty of evidence that the administration cannot always be taken at its word, but here's another reminder if we needed one (and plenty of us seem to). We'll have to wait and see what becomes of the renewed Patriot Act. We'll also have to be patient (though I hope not too patient) to see if some of the bipartisan anger and outrage we saw in Congress today will result in any actual oversight of the White House by the Republican legislature.