Hear Anything About Congress Sneaking Through An Extension Of The "Patriot Act"?

Yesterday evening the House voted to concur in some Senate amendments that were tacked onto the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act. John Dingell (D-MI) was the chief sponsor, and six decent Democrats co-sponsored it: Robert Andrews (NJ), George Miller (CA), Frank Pallone (NJ), Charlie Rangel (NY), Pete Stark (CA) and Henry Waxman (CA). It sounded innocent enough, and it passed 315-97. But the voting breakdown looked weird to me. A mixed bag of 10 Republicans and an awful lot of the best liberals in Congress were in opposition. I mean Ron Paul and Don Young and Jason Chaffetz on the one hand, and then Waxman, a co-sponsor, along with much of the Progressive Caucus joining them, as well as some random sleazy Blue Dogs. Too strange. I called around and realized it was the extension of the hated-- and misnamed-- Patriot Act! The Senate had passed it by an unrecorded unanimous voice vote the day before. Sneaky, sneaky.

One of those Progressive Caucus members who voted "no," Yvette Clarke (D-NY), explained why: “While we continue to bolster tools that help protect our nation, it is important that we do not allow our citizens’ civil liberties to be violated or abused in any way. This is why I voted against H.R. 3961. Our government must protect our homeland while also respecting our right to privacy.”

According to Reuters, "Democrats had sought changes to protect law-abiding U.S. citizens, but Republicans managed to tie up their efforts, arguing that changes would undermine the tracking of suspected enemies of the United States." It looks like hawkish Dems like Jane Harman teamed up with the GOP to kill the reforms.

Thank God we're rid of that neanderthal Bush and we have a brilliant constitutional scholar as president instead... right? No Hope/No Change:



UPDATE: Does Torture Feel Any Better When Democrats Back It?

Today the House passed the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act by a 235-168 vote, Cao the only Republican voting with the Democrats. Meanwhile another handful of strange bedfellows-- from progressives Kucinich, Filner, McDermott, Woolsey and Payne to reactionaries Herseth Sandlin and Space-- voting with the GOP obstructionists. Progressives objected because the bill does not include Jim McDermott's provision aimed at prohibiting harsh interrogation techniques. Reactionary Democrats like Jane Harman combined with Republicans to kill that.

Interestingly, when the Republicans tried (and failed) to kill the bill with their motion to recommit, 28 Democrats joined them, mostly pro-torture conservatives like John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID), Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA), Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ), Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS), Charlie Melancon (Blue Dog-LA), Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN), John Adler (D-NJ), Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL), Lil' Lipinksi (TN/IL), Jim Marshall (Blue Dog-GA) and Glenn Nye (Blue Dog-VA).