Bravo, Representative Sensenbrenner

I'm not always on the same page as Jim Sensenbrenner, but I have absolutely no problems with this:

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chairman of the panel, abruptly gaveled the meeting to an end and walked out, followed by other Republicans. Sensenbrenner said that much of the testimony, which veered into debate over the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was irrelevant.

The hearing was on renewing parts of the Patriot Act which will expire in a few months. I have no problem with Democrats debating renewal. In fact I welcome it even though I'm a supporter of the Patriot Act. The problem is that the Democrats have been reduced to obstructing anything and everything they can in Congress because they are nearly intellectually bankrupt right now and they do not have alternatives to anything Republicans propose. They cannot acquiesce, because doing so ensures an electoral albatross. So they do the only other thing they can; they obstruct anything and everything. That's what this looks like. Instead of staying within the frame work of the issue, the Patriot Act, they extend the debate to issues that are at best tangentially related to the matter at hand in an effort to tar Republicans. Sensenbrenner was right to gavel the meeting to an end.