by TChris

Kudos to the three Republicans who joined three Democrats today to protest reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Although House and Senate negotiators tentatively agreed to make most provisions of the existing law permanent, the bipartisan group of senators -- Larry Craig, John Sununu, Lisa Murkowski, Dick Durbin, Russ Feingold and Ken Salazar -- threatened to block the bill if it did not restore protections the Senate had included against "unnecessary and intrusive government surveillance."

"We cannot support a conference report that would eliminate the modest protections for civil liberties that were agreed to unanimously in the Senate," they said.

Sen. Bill Frist today said the Senate will need to address the legislation "before we leave" for Thanksgiving vacation at the end of the week. If the Patriot Act isn’t reauthorized before the end of the year, many of its more obnoxious provisions would blissfully expire. Frist, of course, doesn’t want that to happen.