My absolute favorite blogger in the blogosphere blogs about what he calls “the new American Liberal Left” in response to Senator Russ Feingold’s ‘let’s censure the President!’ stunt:
The making of a progressive hero? Well, all the ingredients are present: faux populist concern, opportunism disguised as sanctimony, and the continued—and intentional—misrepresentation of the target of his outrage.
And so I give you Russ Feingold: co-author of legislation to make illegal certain political speech of Americans; and now, author of a resolution that will attempt to censure President Bush for following Article II precedent and his mandate as CiC and directing the NSA to listen in on the conversations of our Al Qaeda enemies, using a military asset (the NSA), during wartime.
And the “civil libertarians” and leftists rejoice! This is PATRIOTISM at it’s most brave, they shout! (leaving aside that every single one of Feingold’s charges is utterly bogus and meant to grab him headlines; I mean, is Feingold really attempting to censure the President for “misleading the country” about the existence of a highly classified program? Have we reached such a state of populist arrogance that we are now arguing that the very existence of “highly classified” information that remains highly classified is a crime against the American people?)
Read the whole thing (lots of links included in the above snippet and the rest of his post).
For more commentary on Feingold’s stunt, check out Iowa Voice, AJ Strata, Stop The ACLU, Publius Rendezvous, Suitably Flip, Confederate Yankee
PM Update: The AP is reporting Feingold isn’t getting much support from his fellow Dems:
Democrats distanced themselves Monday from Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold’s effort to censure President Bush over domestic spying, preventing a floor vote that could alienate swing voters.
A day of tough, election-year talk between Feingold and Vice President Dick Cheney ended with Senate leaders sending the matter to the Judiciary Committee.
“I look forward to a full hearing, debate and vote in committee on this important matter,” Feingold said in a statement late Monday. “If the Committee fails to consider the resolution expeditiously, I will ask that there be a vote in the full Senate.”
Republicans dared Democrats to vote for the proposal.
“Some Democrats in Congress have decided the president is the enemy,” Vice President Dick Cheney told a Republican audience in Feingold’s home state.
Feingold, a potential presidential candidate, said on the Senate floor, “The president has violated the law and Congress must respond.”
“A formal censure by Congress is an appropriate and responsible first step to assure the public that when the president thinks he can violate the law without consequences, Congress has the will to hold him accountable,” Feingold said.
Even as he spoke, Democratic leaders held off the immediate vote that Majority Leader Bill Frist requested. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he didn’t know if there ever would be one. Durbin said that Feingold had sought to use the censure resolution “as a catalyst” for thorough hearings and investigations.
The referral averted a debate and a vote that Democrats privately worried would alienate voters who could decide close elections.
Throughout the day, Feingold’s fellow Democrats said they understood his frustration but they held back overt support for the resolution.
PM Update II: Here’s more on how Bill Frist acted like a leader and put Senate Dems on the spot:
WASHINGTON - A short, but sharp partisan skirmish broke out on the Senate floor Monday when Majority Leader Bill Frist tried to schedule a vote for Monday night or Tuesday on Wisconsin Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold’s resolution to censure President Bush.
Frist said Democratic senators ought to be on the record voting for or against the Feingold resolution.
“If the Democratic Party is going to be attacking the president in a time of war, then we are ready to vote and let’s see what the Democratic Party says,” Frist told reporters right after the floor skirmish.
“I don’t know where the Democratic leadership is right now,” he said, but if they support censuring Bush “then I want them to all be on the record.”
But Democratic leaders objected to a roll call vote and it was postponed indefinitely.
Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md, who was leading the Democrats on the floor at the moment Frist made his motion for a vote, said that Frist hadn’t consulted with Democratic Leader Sen. Harry Reid beforehand to give him advance warning of what he was about to do. But a Frist aide said the majority leader had informed Senate Democrats of his intent to seek an immediate censure vote.
Putting Democrats on the spot
If Frist had succeeded in bringing Feingold’s resolution up for a floor vote, it would have put on the spot Democrats who are thinking of running for president in 2008, such as Sens. Hillary Clinton, Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, and John Kerry.
Feingold himself is a potential 2008 Democratic presidential contender.
Frist’s comments seemed to make clear that Republicans think Feingold has handed them an attractive political opportunity and that a vote would divide their opponents.
Sounds like even though a vote wasn’t held today, it’s already dividing Democrats. Way to go, Senator Feingold!
By “make illegal certain political speech”, one assumes the author meant the McCain-Feingold Act limiting campaign contributions. If you believe that the wealthy have a right to buy all of the “speech” that they can affod and that the minimum wage guys get to listen, that is unAmerican. The pyramid we call capitalism needs to be turned on it’s head so that the wealth can rain down on the masses. Peace
Comment by steve @ 3/13/2006 - 8:41 pm
Have we reached such a state of populist arrogance that we are now arguing that the very existence of “highly classified” information that remains highly classified is a crime against the American people?
- Not really. Just more evidence that the internal workings of the Democratic party are in such a termoil that they are all working at cross purposes, in an effort to “be different”, which is the mother of all ironies on one hand, since every breath they take is about “sameness”, eradicating “class”, dumbing down, ect, and just another example of why the utopian ideas of the left are simply unworkable in any real world setting.
- Expect to see a lot more of this because, aside from the obvious loss of the past two elections, and the lose of power that goes with it, its taken awhile but you’ll start to see the other effects. This is the start of the day of “reckoning”. Who did what, and why it didn’t work, and so forth, and as a matter of course, individuals within the party, quite aside from the two main camps of Deaniacs versus Clintonistas, will try plays at jumping in front of the pack, because most of the lessor known luminaries see the same leaderless Reid/Pelosi vacuum, and will attempt to fill it. Thats what Feingold is doing in this case. He floats a rediculous idea that could only appeal to the hard left and Libertarians, just to see what support he can muster, ignoring the overall internal party agenda for personal gain.
- Reid stumbbled his way through his press conference response, trying to bracket the whole thing in a way that distanced the party core without slamming Feingold, but the annoyance was obvious.
- I expect to see a lot more of this in the days to come and an all out battle for the hearts and minds of the party faithful, and it won’t be pretty. Worse yet, it couldn’t come at a less auspicious time, because the Dems can’t realistically hope to find enough issues to push Bushes popularity ratings much lower. Moreover, other than the Congressional elections, the Bush-bashing campaign is a dead end for the 2008 campaign, and they better have a super strong, wide appeal candidate, with a viable platform and party plan, or they’ll get to spend another 4 or 8 years playing sore losers.
- Bang
Comment by Big Bang Hunter @ 3/13/2006 - 8:55 pm
By all means let the Senate vote on the un-Constitutional “censure” resolution of Sen. Feingold. Nothing terrifies Democrats more than democracy.
Comment by Mwalimu Daudi @ 3/14/2006 - 11:21 am
From Expose the Left
I Love It!
This needs to be done EACH time.
Everytime Dhimmicrats come out like this, Republicans need ot stand up and call them on it.
Show Americans why they are doing it, show people what type of political games dhimmicrats are playing with the war on terror, the games they are playing with your life, my life and other americans lives.
Comment by sanity @ 3/14/2006 - 10:14 pm
Democrats have nothing to say…
Oh this is just too funny!
Hat Tip: Captain’s Quarters
More from the Dana Milbank article:
But they didn’t want to wait for the 45 days on the UAE deal and wanted a vote on that NOW. So why the sudden ‘patience’ on the democrats part now?
Uh-oh looks like someone is in trouble with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Whip Richard Durbin.
My how they don’t seem to be happy with Sen. Russell Feingold.
Maybe it’s be, but in the photo Feingold seems a bit arrogant or like the petulant child being reprimanded by big daddy Reid and momma Durbin.
Sanity, I just blogged about the Dem’s being evasive on this earlier here.
–ST
Comment by sanity @ 3/15/2006 - 9:25 am
It hadn’t shown up when I was typing it, sorry ST.
Comment by sanity @ 3/15/2006 - 9:38 am
No prob
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 3/15/2006 - 9:46 am