Early Friday morning, the Senate could only find 52 votes to challenge Russ Feingold’s (D-Wis.) threatened filibuster of the renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act. So it looks like we’re having a filibuster.

Under Senate rules, 60 votes are needed to end a filibuster, a process called cloture.

Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) who has been lobbying hard to get the Patriot Act renewed in any way, shape or form, changed his vote at the last minute, so he would be able to call for a new vote later.

[Frist] He immediately objected to an offer of a short term extension from Democrats, saying the House won’t approve it and the president won’t sign it.

“We have more to fear from terrorism than we do from this Patriot Act,” Frist warned.

If the Patriot Act provisions expire, Republicans say they will place the blame on Democrats in next year’s midterm elections. “In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without these vital tools for a single moment,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. “The time for Democrats to stop standing in the way has come.”

But the Patriot Act’s critics got a boost from a New York Times report saying Bush authorized the National Security Agency to monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds — perhaps thousands — of people inside the United States. Previously, the NSA typically limited its domestic surveillance to foreign embassies and missions and obtained court orders for such investigations.

“I don’t want to hear again from the attorney general or anyone on this floor that this government has shown it can be trusted to use the power we give it with restraint and care,” said Feingold, the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001.

“It is time to have some checks and balances in this country,” shouted Sen. Patrick Leahy, (D-Vt.) ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. “We are more American for doing that.” — Associated Press

The Washington Post has the record of which Democrats voted to end the filibuster, and which Republicans voted for sleeping on cots all weekend.

We do not need the government to spy on innocent Americans to win the war on terror. Indeed, that spying will cause Americans to live in fear — of their government. And that’s the worst terrorism of all.