Quote of the Day: "We have more to fear from terrorism than we do from this Patriot Act."

Yes, that was U.S. Senator Bill Frist (R-Tennessee), commenting after the Senate voted down several permanent extensions of the Patriot Act today. In the absence of mutually agreeable language by December 31, the 16 Patriot Act provisions in question will expire, leaving Republicans - apparently - to blame the Democrats next year if something "bad" happens.

Of course, Frist and many of his Republican colleagues rejected the other side's offer to extend the current provisions for a short period in order to continue working toward a mutually agreeable solution. And THEY'RE the ones who are going to blame the Dems in next year's mid-term elections? Ooookay.

Let's not forget that there were four Republicans who voted down the Patriot Reauthorization Act, which needed 60 votes in order to avoid a filibuster. And who was among the four Republicans who voted against it? BILL FRIST!! Huh?

Frist changed his vote at the last moment after seeing the critics would win. He decided to vote with the prevailing side so he could call for a new vote at any time.

So who's the one now playing politics with our national security? Apparently, Bill Frist.

If the Patriot Act provisions expire, Republicans say they will place the blame on Democrats in next year's midterm elections. "In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without these vital tools for a single moment," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "The time for Democrats to stop standing in the way has come."

Well, apparently the Democrats' "standing in the way" hasn't deterred the President from secretly enacting his own provisions for spying on Americans in the wake of 9/11, as reported today in the New York Times. Unbeknownst to most people in this country, Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) via executive order to spy on Americans in this country without the need for a court-ordered warrant, as required by law. This is exactly the kind of abuse of power that our three-branches-of-government system of checks and balances is supposed to restrict.

And we're to trust these people? Yeah, right.