There are two issues... 1) Reeps shot down a 3 month extension offered by Democrats (offered with the intent of keeping the "protections" in place while a reworked bill is hammered out that protects civil liberties). 2) Reeps were unable to block a filibuster by Dems designed to prevent voting on a bill to extend the current Patriot Act 4 more years. Which means, of course, that USA PATRIOT expires on 31 Dec. I think Reeps would tell us to expect a terrorist attack on 1 Jan 06. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if the "terror alert" level jumped to "orange".
Seriously, if you cannot rent a boat full of fine women when you are an amazing athlete and really rich, then get in on while the girls go to town on each other in public, we don't have any freedom to hate.
Frist was one of the Reeps voting against ending the filibuster. So much for Bush controling the Senate.
That was a procedural choice. By voting against it, he can now bring it back up any time he wants when he thinks they do have the votes.
Salute these Republicans: Republicans who voted against cloture included Sens. Chuck Hagel, John Sununu, Lisa Murkowski, and Larry Craig.
The Majority Leader always votes against cloture unless the votes are there. That's why he votes last--if there are less than 59 votes in the affirmative, he votes 'no'. As GringoTex pointed out, it allows him to re-introduce the cloture motion, as Senate rules stipulate that only someone who has previously been against cloture may re-introduce a cloture motion. Otherwise, there'd only be one shot to put an end to each fillibuster.