The New York Times just published an article explaining how congressional Democrats are going to pass a bill extending the N.S.A. wiretapping program. Now this is certainly an oddity. The same democrats who cheered that they had “killed the patriot act” and who have claimed bush is “shreading” the constitution by turning the U.S. into a police state are now authorizing the continuation of the very program they equate with totalitarianism.

Based on such an odd move, I can think of only one explanation. It seems this fear-mongering about Bush’s police state is nothing more than a political ploy. They know the program is within constitutional limits, but are trying to scare their base into believing Bush is going to listen in on their phone conversations. They know how effective the wiretapping program is at preventing terrorists activities and know that the consequences of future terrorist activity could be placed squarely on them should they stonewall the bill.

I suppose the Democratic leadership could be so ineffective that they can’t stop anything the Bush administration wants passed–even though they are the majority party in a lame duck presidency, but I’d hate to be accused of thinking that badly of them.