Patriot Act Kabuki Theater

The New York Times reports today:

The Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation
renewing the sweeping antiterror law known
as the USA Patriot Act on Thursday, ending a
months-long impasse on Capitol Hill and
virtually guaranteeing that the measure will
go to President Bush to be signed.

At no point in the article, however, does the Times see fit to mention just what the Patriot Act is, i.e., a collection of amendments to other statutes, most notably, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). If you bother to take even a cursory glance through the text of the USA Patriot Reauthorization Act [link is to an earlier version of the bill], you'll notice right away that the bulk of it is devoted to various amendments to FISA, the very statute that the president now claims he has the authority to disregard at will.

But it's hard to be too hard on the Times when the Democrats have made virtually no effort to explain this astounding bit of incoherence to the American people. You would think one or two of them might point out that they are being asked to reauthorize a law that the President is, at the same time, openly flaunting. But no, they can't even bring themselves to explain to people that the Patriot Act and FISA are essentially the same thing. Instead they play along as the President and Republicans in Congress pretend like the renewal of the Patriot Act is unrelated to and entirely consistent with the administration's position on warrantless surveillance.

The Times article actually quotes the President saying the following about the effort to renew the Patriot Act:

"The Patriot Act is vital to the war on terror
and defending our citizens against a ruthless
enemy," the president said in a statement
from India.

"This bill will allow our law enforcement
officials to continue to use the same tools
against terrorists that are already used
against drug dealers and other criminals,
while safeguarding the civil liberties of the
American people."

Is it really that hard for the Democrats to point out how entirely incoherent and assinine these statements are? I'm sure the Times fished for some sort of balancing quote from a Democrat; the fact that they couldn't find one speaks volumes about the inability of the Democrats to pick even the lowest-lying fruit. For instance, perhaps someone could have asked rhetorically why the Patriot Act is so "vital to the war on terror" if the AUMF and Article II already give the president the power to do anything he deems "necessary." Or perhaps they could wonder aloud how the Patriot Act "safeguard[s] the civil liberties of the American people" if the executive branch is not bound by its provisions.

I'm not really sure why the Democrats and the media are so willing to go along with this Kabuki show. Perhaps the paradox is so glarring that it makes their heads hurt. Perhaps they think the American people are too dumb to appreciate the irony. Whatever the reason, I'm getting pretty sick of it. Maybe, just maybe, when the President once again reaffirms the validy of FISA by signing this statute into law, someone somewhere will point out just how ridiculous it is that the President is, on the one hand, claiming that a law is vital and necessary and, on the other hand, openly defying it. I'm not holding my breath, though. I fully expect more Kabuki theater.