Threatening Congress

I really can't decide if congress-critters are just dumb, or if if they are truly scared for their lives:

Just hours after sensors in a U.S. Senate office building detected a nerve agent, a number of key Senators announced a capitulation to the White House's demands on the renewal and expansion of the police-state USA PATRIOT Act.

(snip)

The agreement Monday no changes to the very flimsy evidentiary standard required to connect someone to a so-called "terrorist" before searching places and records. The Senators only agreed to three minor cosmetic changes, with a focus on library records, with no regard to the broad categories of commercial transactions searched in the wake of the law's passage in 2001.

It should be noted the original PATRIOT Act was passed in the wake of 9/11 while all of the Senate office buildings were shut down after receiving military-grade anthrax in the mail.