The Patriot Act is in the process of being renewed at the moment. Fair enough, the act is not perfect by any means, but it can be justified by the dangerous nature of the times in which we live. What’s more difficult to understand is why the Bush administration has resisted including fresh sunset provisions. If there’s any legislation that needs the special scrutiny that sunset provisions bring with them, it’s this sort of legislation. Where the Patriot Act is concerned the usual half-hearted scrutiny and cheap point -scoring that normally passes for ‘congressional oversight’ simply will not do.

Once upon a time, the GOP would have understood this. Not these days, it seems.