I rather enjoy beating up on Senator Kyl because he really deserves it.

But he did do something this week that deserves our thanks and I'm not above giving him his due for it.

Senator Kyl is a member of the Judiciary Committee, which voted on Thursday to pass the Violence Against Women Act to the floor of the Senate. Not only did he vote with the majority, but he also added an amendment that makes it easier for law enforcement to maintain DNA databases.

I was a little creeped out by the "big brother" aspects of this amendment at first, but his justification makes sense: most sex offenders are serial predators who perpetrate repeatedly and are arrested a few times before they are actually convicted. By collecting DNA evidenced from them after their first arrest, it makes it easier to link their future crimes to them, even if there's not enough evidence to convict at the time of the first arrest. This isn't a violation of civil liberties because law enforcement would already have probably cause to make the arrest.

So I give a very narrow thank you to Jon Kyl for his work on this issue. It has the potential to prevent some sexual assaults, particularly of children.