US Attourney Patriot Act Scandals

This just blows my mind. How, in all that is holy, can someone or some group of people slip something into a bill or other piece of legislation? Do these people read the damn things? Yes, who dunnit is important, but who let it be done is as, if not more important. From the article...

Now, it's not necessarily outrageous that Sen. Specter didn't know what his subordinate slipped into the legislation. The Patriot Reauthorization was a long and hotly debated bill.

...complete bullshit. This isn't some high school book report.

How can democracy work with occurances such as these mishaps so common. I've been considering work in projects dealing with social-democracy [see Matt Burton's thesis for an example of a similar approach]. But what good will an informed public be, when the problem isn't just constituent apathy and ignorance, but real issues within the actual governmental entities themselves?