NYT reports:

Supporters of the plan, which revised the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, said that the final vote reflected both political reality and legal practicality. Wiretapping orders approved by a secret court under the previous version of the surveillance law were set to begin expiring in August unless Congress acted, and many Democrats were wary of going into their political convention in Denver next month with the issue hanging over them—handing the Republicans a potent political weapon.

So the crack group of thinkers running the Democrat Party responded by…handing the Republicans a potent political weapon. Here, Luthor, have some kryptonite. I know there’s nothing you can do with this. Ha, see how I’ve outmaneuvered you by giving you the thing with which to kill me.

Naturally, the Democrat had a cunning plan:

Democrats pointed to some concessions they had won from the White House in the lengthy negotiations. The final bill includes a reaffirmation that the surveillance law is the “exclusive” means of conducting intelligence wiretaps — a provision that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats insisted would prevent Mr. Bush or any future president from evading court scrutiny in the way that the N.S.A. program did.

Ho ho ho, they sure showed the GOP. First, let me legalize everything illegal you’ve been doing for years. Then, I’ll also let you and your enablers off the hook without EVER checking into what, exactly, it was you were even doing. Then, I’ll reaffirm, in a very strongly worded letter, that the law is the law! Amazing, really. Such strict terms.

Worth noting that a GOP Congress couldn’t get this piece of shit passed; for that, we needed the Democrats in charge. Brilliant. Thank God Dear Leader is reportedly happy and expected to sign the bill into law quickly. Wouldn’t want to inconvenience or annoy the least popular President in the history of polling. Why, that might make the Democrat appear weak and feckless.