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Reading through headlines about the successful extension of the Patriot Act, its difficult not to think that were the roles switched, Harry Reid's boast of killing the legislation would have been trumpeted as the statement of an idiot akin to Bush's "Mission Complete" speech.

This is being labelled a compromise. This is absolutely untrue. This is no compromise, but a victory. Now, Republicans have had the Democrats vote twice in favor of the Patriot Act. Even with the aid of the supposed "outing" of the President's "secret" wire-tapping, revelations of black sites, and in the midst of McCain's torture amendment negotiations, the Dems still had trouble explaining their filibuster -- which was only barely successful. In six months, when it comes time to take another vote on the amendment, opponents won't have BlackSite-gate, Wiretap-gate, nor Torture-gate to pressure the moderates to their side. Instead, they'll have a 2006 election driven by Congressmen needing to appear strong on defense -- the Dems have lost.

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Harry Reid