Remember how the right got all up in arms when Harry Reid proclaimed “we killed the Patriot Act” a couple months back? Well the L.A. Times has a headline that mimics that line but on the other side of the aisle. The headline reads “Republicans Kill Request for Spy Program Inquiry”.

Republican members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday defeated a Democratic push to investigate a domestic espionage operation authorized by President Bush, but pledged to increase scrutiny of the controversial program through a newly created subcommittee.

The developments enraged Democrats but delivered mixed results for the White House, which avoided a full-scale investigation of the spying operation, according to Senate Republicans, by agreeing to provide detailed briefings on the program to a larger number of lawmakers.

So there you have it. Civil Liberties do not matter much anymore and if Bush is thought to do anything illegal, well they will just change the laws to accommodate him.

Glenn Greenwald has a great wrap up of this.