It’s really sad when you think about it. During the Bush years, Patrick Leahy was a man that stood on the side of privacy. Now that a Democrat is in the White House, he stands on the side of spying:

A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans’ e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.

CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans’ e-mail, is scheduled for next week.

Leahy’s rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans’ e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.

Legislation like this is the very reason I argue for two parties willing to work together. It’s the best form of checks and balances we have, just like a warrant is a form of checks and balances over law enforcement. Hopefully that will happen here. If not, then you need to really watch what you EMail and sit back as our Constitution dies a little more.