Patriot Act may only be extended a month, so debate on it doesn't intrude on Congress' vacation

Republican nutjob Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee, objected to the Senate-passed six-month reauthorization of the Patriot Act today - Sensenbrenner wants it reauthorized permanently. So he forced the House today to only pass a five-week extension of the Act.

The weird thing is that Sensenbrenner just totally stuck it to Bush. Bush wanted the bill reauthorized for good, opponents of the bill wanted it reauthorized for three months in order to give the Congress time to examine the reauthorization more closely, especially in light of Bush's illegal domestic spying which was only revealed on the day the Senate was voting on the legislation. So, 3 months would have been a loss for Bush, 6 months gave him something he could save face with - that means one month is a major slap at Bush.

But more importantly, it's clear Sensenbrenner thinks revisiting the bill in 5 weeks will help the bill's supporters get permanent (or long-term) reauthorization. Probably because that means the vote would be shortly after the State of the Union, a speech that usually gives any president a bump in the polls.

But is Sensenbrenner right? Within the next 5 weeks the domestic spying scandal is only going to grow. And sometime in the next 5 weeks we can perhaps expect Karl Rove to be indicted. In any case, Sensebrenner didn't help his cause any by going on TV this afternoon and saying that the debate over the legislation has already intruded on his Christmas vacation and a six month extension will intrude on his Fourth of July vacation, so that's why he's objecting.

As far as I'm concerned, 5 weeks is ample time to blow the domestic spying issue out of the water, and influence the Patriot Act and more. Sensenbrenner doesn't realize that a lot of conservatives are just as concerned as liberals about the growing threat unchecked government power is posing to America's freedoms.