In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President George W. Bush called the bluff of Patriot Act critics. Bush pointed out that key provisions of the Patriot Act will expire next year, while "the terrorist threat will not expire on that schedule," and he challenged Congress to renew this important antiterrorism measure.

You gotta love a president who is not going to seek a permission slip to protect the American people, especially when compared to the Democratic presidential contenders, who check with the ACLU before defending American security. Their attacks on the Patriot Act are straight from Planet Kucinich — incidentally, the only presidential candidate who actually voted against the Patriot Act in Congress.

The president explained during his address that the Patriot Act was one of those "essential tools" which allow federal law enforcement "to better share information, to track terrorists, to disrupt their cells, and to seize their assets." The bill passed in October 2001 with only one senator voting against it and with the support of 83 percent of the House of Representatives.

As the president pointed out, the law-enforcement methods outlined in the Patriot Act have been used for years to go after drug traffickers and mobsters, and are even "more important for hunting terrorists." He could have been quoting Senator Joe Biden (D., Del.), who said at the time of the bill’s passage, "[T]he FBI could get a wiretap to investigate the mafia, but they could not get one to investigate terrorists. To put it bluntly, that was crazy! What’s good for the mob should be good for terrorists."