In what is unfortunately a subscription article in Salon, Jake Tapper tells an interesting tale of the strangest of bedfellows, Grover Norquist (not my hero), some of his mondo-conservative buddies and the ACLU and other organizations that are against the USA PATRIOT act, called by even republicans "bad law"

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By way of explanation of the lopsided vote, the ACLU's Murphy quoted conservative Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who said on a call-in show on Alaska Public Radio that the USA PATRIOT Act was the "worst act we ever passed. Everybody voted for it, but it was stupid, it was what you call 'emotional voting.'"
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It seems that the Ashcroft Reichsministry of Justice is not amused by this teaming-up of right and left-wingers to assail what it views as just the beginning of what is in their view, a minimalist assault on our rights that is crying out for the expansion via PATRIOT II. A DOJ spokesperson, Barbara Comstock made what has to be the stupidest statement of the year,

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Comstock rebutted Norquist's logic, saying, "You can't pass laws based on the fact that you think there are going to be corrupt people who misuse the system some day."
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I guess Barbie missed the whole COINTELPRO, 1960's through the Nixon years, FBI domestic-surveillance thing, what do you think? Or they forgot to include that in her history books in school, because of tax-cuts...

Now don't go thinking that Grover is getting all good-samaritan here, he's worried that someday a Democrat might be Attorney General, and then what would they (he specifically mentions Hillary Clinton, which would of course be like the republicans worst acid-induced nightmare) do with the awesome powers given them by the PATRIOT act...like lock up American Citizens and keep them incommunicado...no republican would ever do that, right?