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Strange bedfellows

At a hotel in the suburbs of Washington Sunday, conservative leaders Grover Norquist and David Keene joined forces with some of the most bitter and determined foes of the Bush White House to denounce the administration's main law-enforcement tool in the war on terrorism -- the USA Patriot Act, Byron York writes at National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com).

"Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, and Keene, of the American Conservative Union, joined actor Alec Baldwin and People for the American Way President Ralph Neas as part of a conference called 'Grassroots America Defends the Bill of Rights,'" Mr. York said. ...

"Among those participating were representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom (the organization once headed by Sami al-Arian, the Florida professor facing terrorism-related charges), the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Muslim American Society (its representative, Mahdi Bray, played a prominent role in International ANSWER's antiwar protests in Washington), and the National Lawyers' Guild, and others.

"Much of the support for the conference came from the American Civil Liberties Union, which has conducted a long campaign against the Patriot Act. The panel on which Baldwin, Neas, Norquist and Keene appeared was sponsored by People for the American Way. Attendees were given a copy of the group's new report, 'Two Years After 9/11: Ashcroft's Assault on the Constitution.' ...

"At times, the panel discussion had the air of a love fest as the audience, which appeared to be dominated by anti-Bush activists, applauded Norquist's and Keene's criticisms of the act and the legislators who approved it. At times, both Norquist and Keene raised legitimate questions about the act, but neither man challenged what appeared to be substantial mischaracterizations of the act's provisions coming from the other side.

"For example, on more than one occasion, panelists on the left repeated charges that the act allows federal law enforcement to seize personal records without judicial supervision and without having to report to Congress."

Drop dead