Cloture on PATRIOT ACT Fails

52 in favor of invoking cloture, 47 against. No vote will take place on this bill at least for the time being. Haven't seen any indication of when the Senate leadership will seek another cloture vote, but this is a major victory. Crapo (R-ID) and Smith (R-OR) vote in favor of cloture, demonstrates a couple of things. Crapo doesn't really care about civil liberties even though he says he does. And Smith isn't moderate even though he says he is. Anyone who supports the PATRIOT ACT at this point is nothing more than a tool for the Bush Administration, we've all seen now both that the PATRIOT ACT grants Federal law enforcement more power than is reasonable, and that the Bush Administration cannot be trusted with it.