What it means to be a P.A.T.R.I.O.T.

Did you know that what we call the "Patriot" Act is officially denominated the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" Act?

U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T.

Get it?

Now you know that tortured acronym had to have been reverse-engineered by spinners who've studied their Orwell...or their S.M.E.R.S.H.

Today a group of Senate worthies refused to ratify making permanent a group of the Act's provisions, set to expire on December 31, that critics fear may impinge a little too grossly upon our civil liberties. George Bush was chagrined. He had stamped his foot and had a temper tantrum when Senators (mostly Democrats; and most of the Democrats*) proposed that the sunsetting provisions be extended for only three months, allowing time for further wrangling. Bush said he'd veto the renewal out of hand rather than compromise on the House version of the legislation, which would have renewed the entire Act for another four years.

But compromise is what the Senators themselves did, agreeing to extend the contested provisions for another six months. (Republicans had moved in this direction by proposing a year's extension. The two sides ended up splitting the difference.) Call it kicking the can down the road, but the atmosphere was not ripe today for giving anybody unlimited spy powers for an unlimited amount of time. Some senators are undoubtedly smarting from the blow to their vanity revealed in Bush's NSA end-run around checks, balances and oversight.

Now it remains to be seen whether the House (which may reconvene for business tomorrow) gives its imprimatur to the limitations the Senate has imposed, and if it does, whether Bush will make good on his all-or-nothing threat.

The Washington Post notes that

House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) has shown little willingness to renegotiate the four-year extension his chamber had approved. "Any talk of a short-term extension is fruitless," his spokesman Jeff Lungren said several hours before the Senate deal was announced. "Chairman Sensenbrenner will not accept anything less than a four-year extension of the Patriot Act."

Meanwhile, the nation's unity and strength upon which the Act's name stands are presumably in safe harbor for the time being. Uh, yeah.

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* Four Republicans — Larry E. Craig (Idaho), Chuck Hagel (Nebraska.), John E. Sununu (N.H.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — joined all but two Democrats — Ben Nelson (Nebraska) and Tim Johnson (S.D.) — to sustain the filibuster that led to the compromise.