[Patriot Act]

Whoa.

File this in the "my, ain't hell cold this morning" file:

Backers of a proposed four-year extension of the USA Patriot Act failed to shut off Senate debate today, preventing a vote on the matter and dealing a setback to President Bush on a major issue involving anti-terrorism efforts and civil liberties.

The Democratic-led filibuster drew enough Republican support to keep the president's allies from gaining the 60 votes needed to end debate in the 100-member chamber. The 52-47 vote will require the White House and congressional leaders to seek another way to deal with the scheduled Dec. 31 expiration of key aspects of the law.

The Post now has this cool little feature, in case you missed it, to track votes on key legislation (actually, on all legislation--but you gotta be a masochist to care about that). So now we can quickly find out who's been naughty and nice:

Republican allies
Larry Craig (ID), Bill Frist (TN)*, Chuck Hagel (NE), Lisa Murkowski (AK), John Sununu (NH)

Democratic foes
Tim Johnson (SD), Ben Nelson (NE)

*Frist isn't actually an ally here. He switched his vote in a parliamentary move (that I don't even vaguely understand) that will allow him to bring it to a vote later.