This is great news if true, and about damned time. Tons of credit go to Senator Feingold, who I don't think has a chance of becoming President, but am starting to think would make a good one.
[T]he math on the Patriot Act suddenly seems to be moving in favor of Sen. Russell Feingold.Read the whole thing. I especially like the way an unusual coalition is working together against the White House.
He was a minority of one four years ago, when the Wisconsin Democrat cast the lone Senate vote against the USA Patriot Act in the traumatic weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. The law, he said then, gave government too much power to investigate its citizens. Ninety-nine senators disagreed.
Now add more than two dozen senators to Feingold's side, including the leaders of his party and some of the chamber's most conservative Republicans, and the balance of power shifts.
The new Senate arithmetic that emerged this week is enough to place the renewal of major portions of the law in doubt.
....
Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., told reporters that more than 40 votes exist to sustain a filibuster in a test vote Friday.
[UPDATE: The vote to end debate failed miserably. 60 votes are needed. Bush only got 52. Frist is pissed. We'll see if we can actually get some reasonable changes in the legislation]
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