Preserving Liberty

Looks like Fristy and the Senate thinks they don't have the votes:

As the USA Patriot Act headed toward passage in the House, its prospects in the Senate grew so uncertain Wednesday that Republican leaders considered an alternative to extend the current law a year rather than let parts of it expire Dec. 31 for lack of consensus, a senior Republican aide said.

Senate vote-counters trying to tally support and opposition for an agreement that would revise the 2001 anti-terror law were unable to precisely gauge it's prospects Wednesday.

If the agreement to renew the act fails a crucial test of support, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was preparing to bring up his own legislation to extend the current Patriot Act for a year, according to a senior Frist aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been made.

The House-Senate conferees dishonestly used the process to craft a bill that made room for none of the concerns about civil liberties and constitutional rights. Russ Feingold and others have therefore led the fight to preserve those basic protections while still effectively enforcing the law and stopping terrorism. And it looks like Feingold's got a major convert:

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will vote against the updated Patriot Act and will join with senators who are seeking to block the bill from coming up for a vote, RAW STORY has learned.

Reid has told aides he will vote against cloture -- a Senate procedure which requires that 60 senators support a bill being brought before the Senate before it is brought to a final vote. In essence, voting against cloture means supporting a filibuster.

"Senator Reid has several concerns including the National Security letters, the library provision, and some of the habeas corpus aspects which have nothing to do with terrorism," an aide told RAW STORY.

These concerns were shoved aside in conference, expecting that Republican majorities would simply ram this through. But it hasn't only been Feingold in this fight. He's led a bipartisan group of civil libertarians, including Republicans Larry Craig, John Sununu and Lisa Murkowski. All of them agree that, as Ben Franklin said, "When you give up liberty for security, you end up with neither."

UPDATE: Sen. Feingold has been blogging at TPM Cafe all week leading up to the Senate fight. He confirms Reid's (and Leahy's) opposition, and gives some new info in today's post:

This morning, the SAFE Act cosponsors released a "Dear Colleague" letter, laying out our objections to the conference report and pledging to vote against cloture.  You'll see some new names on this letter - including Republican Senator Chuck Hagel.

So that's at LEAST 4 Republicans on his side.