Bush demanded just before Christmas that the Senate pass Patriot Act II by December 31st no matter what. When offered an extension of the original Patriot Act for 6 months, he turned it down, swearing he wanted all or nothing and forcing Frist to schedule the vote that way. Less than 24 hours after swearing he’d never give in on this point, Bush suddenly demanded instead an extension of one month only, and got it. I said at the time this meant Bush knew he was in serious trouble over the spy scandal, that he wanted one month because he knew his chances for passing Patriot II would go down drastically after 6 months of new revelations on the real nature of the domestic NSA spying program. Well, he just lost that battle. The Senate, very quietly, just gave the old Patriot Act another one month extension.
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