Torture, terrorism, and oil drilling in the U.S. Senate

From The New York Times:

In a chaotic conclusion to the Congressional year, the Senate blocked an effort on Wednesday to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling and struck a last-minute accord to extend the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act for six months.

With Vice President Dick Cheney casting the decisive vote, the Senate also approved a $40 billion budget-cutting plan. And the Senate sent to President Bush a Pentagon policy measure with a ban on torturing detainees linked to terrorism.

I'm not big on the budget cuts, to be sure, but the other three votes seem to me to be the right ones. As I've argued before, there should not be drilling in ANWR (see here) and torture should not be sanctioned (see here and here). I do not support the Patriot Act in its current form, but this extension was forced by four Republican rebels -- Senators Hagel, Murkowski, Craig, and, above all, Sununu -- who have refused to support President Bush's efforts to renew the Act as is (and thereby to allow for yet more of what is clearly excessive executive power). Good for them, obviously, and this extension means that a deal could still be worked out between the Act's critics on both sides of the aisle and stalwarts in the Republican caucus who refused to budge until this latest vote. (For more on the Patriot Act and the four Republican rebels, see E.J. Dionne's recent column in The Washington Post.)

See the Times article for more -- and, if you're truly wonkish, go here for details of recent Senate votes.