When the Senate failed to reauthorize the Patriot Act last month, Harry Reid was exultant.(Brief article)

* When the Senate failed to reauthorize the Patriot Act last month, Harry Reid was exultant. "We killed the Patriot Act," he said. We aren't sure why he's boasting. The Patriot Act--which eliminated the "wall" that prevented law-enforcement and national-security agents from sharing information--has allowed the government to disrupt several terror plots, break up terror cells, and conduct a series of successful prosecutions. It has, in short, saved lives. Its most controversial provisions--including the authority it grants investigators to subpoena library and business records and to use roving wiretaps--are by no means novel techniques. They are, rather, long-established practices of law-enforcement ...