WaPo: A Senate Maverick Acts to Force an Issue

[IndianaGreen]

A Senate Maverick Acts to Force an Issue

Democrat Feingold's Motion to Censure the President Roils Both Parties

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 15, 2006; Page A01

For months the Democrats have resisted calls from their liberal base to more aggressively challenge President Bush. Now a maverick Democratic senator from Wisconsin has forced his party and Congress to confront head-on the question of whether Bush should somehow be punished for secretly ordering warrantless wiretaps of U.S. citizens.

Sen. Russell Feingold's call this week to formally censure Bush for what some say was a clear violation of a federal statute regulating domestic surveillance has touched off a fierce debate on Capitol Hill that is likely to persist throughout the congressional campaign season.

GOP leaders who had been reeling from the impact of Republican political scandals, an unpopular war and Bush's mishandling of the port-security issue sensed that Feingold overplayed his hand and denounced the censure resolution as a political stunt by an ambitious lawmaker positioning himself to run for president in 2008. Many Democrats, while sympathetic to Feingold's maneuver, appeared to be distancing themselves from his resolution yesterday, wary of polls showing that a majority of Americans side with the president on wiretapping tactics.

Feingold, 53, says he is convinced that Bush broke the law in ordering National Security Agency wiretaps of overseas telephone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens that involved people suspected of terrorist activities without first obtaining special court approval, and that his party must take a firm stand in protest. Unless Democrats make the case that they are more trustworthy than Republicans on national security issues, Feingold says, the party cannot win control of the White House or Congress.

"We have a great case that they have done a poor job of fighting the war against terrorism," Feingold said of the Republicans in an interview yesterday. "We need a different strategy, one that shows we stand for something."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031401752.html

[fearnobush]

1. Why trust Bush to wireTap you when he desperately wants to sell our ports

to a nation who supported 911 terrorists and the Taliban?

Now thats how you frame the debate! Too bad the Dems in the Senate have no balls for this.

[radio4progressives]

2. I nominate you to replace Lieberman or the Nelsons or any of them!

We should elect our reps from a pool of candidates from DU and storm the fucking castles! Show these spineless slugs how to do it!

[Daphne08]

3. I just don't believe the majority of Americans are okay with

this spying. I really don't.

[IndianaGreen]

4. We already know the spying was more widespread than first

reported. Bush had peace groups under surveillance as well, what else has he done that we as yet don't know about?

[IndianaGreen]

5. A kick for the morning shift

I already e-mailed my Senators, including filling out the webform that Evan Bayh has on his website.

[flpoljunkie]

6. Great article! Well worth reading. Thanks for posting. K&R!

Feingold's resolution, formally introduced Monday, would censure Bush for approving an "illegal program to spy on American citizens on American soil." The senator's intention was to refer the matter to the Judiciary Committee for hearings and a vote before consideration by the full Senate. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) tried to force an immediate vote, to put the Democrats on the spot, but Democratic leaders objected, and for now the censure measure appears to be stalled.

<>While other Democrats speak more colorfully, or show up more often on television, Feingold has carved a niche as one of the least-predictable senators. As he contemplates a presidential bid, he is emerging as an anti-establishment maverick, a blend of Howard Dean, John McCain and the late Wisconsin progressive senator William Proxmire.

The Rhodes scholar and Harvard Law School graduate was elected at age 29 to the Wisconsin legislature, defeating an incumbent by a handful of votes. He turned back two better-known Democratic challengers in the 1992 Senate primary by ignoring their mudslinging and running humorous ads, including one in which he conducted a tour of his Madison area home, noting the closet space and saying, "Look, no skeletons."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...