The Patriot Act has passed in the House and is not set to be signed by Bush.

In the AP article about this passing they had a paragraph that made me laugh:

The vote, 280-138 under special rules that required a two-thirds majority, marked a political victory for Bush and will allow congressional Republicans facing midterm elections this year to continue touting a tough-on-terror stance. Bush’s approval ratings have suffered in recent months after revelations that he had authorized secret, warrantless wiretapping of Americans.

OK lets get this straight. The warrantless taps are only a small part of the reason why Bush’s approval rating are in the dumps. As matter of fact, the Dubai port deal has hurt his approval rating even more and put the Democrats ahead of Republicans when it comes to the issue of national security.

It seems like this is some Republican happy spin to make things seem better. Well things aren’t better. As matter of fact the Patriot Act has not even been that hot of a topic lately. More people are wondering about things like Dubai right now.

So does the patriot act passing mean Republicans are sitting pretty for this fall’s elections? The answer is a definitive NO.