Will Feingold Become the Eugene McCarthy of ’08 Primaries?

[Trevelyan]

Russ Never Sleeps http://www.observer.com/printpage.asp?iid=12576&ic=News+Story+2

‘Politicians and Pundits Are Afraid,’ Says Wisconsin’s Feingold, As Democrats Abandon Him on Bush Wiretap Censure Motion; Will Senator Become the Eugene McCarthy of ’08 Primaries?

By: Chris Lehmann Date: 3/27/2006

None of this fits any of the tried-and-true formulations in the red-and-blue American playbook. A mild- mannered Midwestern Senator—Russ Feingold—announces on a Sunday-morning chat show that he’s going to introduce a resolution to censure the President. His grounds are straightforward: that the President’s warrantless-wiretapping initiative violates the law and the constitutional separation of powers. His party’s leaders, all universally understood as coastal-elite figures drunk on their hatred of the President and hell-bent on his undoing—well, they flee en masse, literally hiding behind each other as inquiring reporters try to suss out what they make of the proposal....

[kiteinthewind]

1. I love this man!! I see him as our only hope of getting this country back

on track!

:patriot:

[Warren Stupidity]

2. That would make him the point man in the successful effort

to drive a big old wedge into ruling class solidarity and bring an end to an illegal and immoral war. Great News.

[saltpoint]

3. There's a resonance there, yes. A singular entity rising amid the

cloud of a war that's badly managed and spiritually draining...

Other circumstances are changed, though. RFK and McCarthy rose against an incumbent of their own party. Feingold has the advantage (I would say) of challenging not only one idiot GOP president, but the complicity of his entire party, which would likely have ripple effects on the ballot from the bottom up.

The Right paints Feingold as a traitorous imp, challenging the president during a time of war, blah, blah, blah.

But history may celebrate Feingold for his brave voice against a disastrous last gasp of imperialism. Iraq is a complete failure, whether Bush's flunkie advisors have told him so or not.

Bush is wrong. Feingold's right. That was a big part of the McCarthy formula against Johnson in 1968.

[Trevelyan]

4. Me Too!! I want a real president again.

Senator Russ Feingold March 30, 2006 TomPaine.com

During the Watergate hearings, then-Senator Howard Baker, a Republican, showed tremendous courage, and a deep sense of Congress’s duty to hold President Nixon accountable, when he asked that now-famous question: “What did the President know and when did he know it?” Baker was one of a handful of Republicans during the scandal who stood up to their party, and to the President. Today, as the President admits, even flaunts, his program to wiretap Americans on American soil without the warrants required by law,
we need more courageous Republicans to stand up and check the President’s power grab.

Read the rest
http://factcheck.org/article381.html

[Douglas Carpenter]

5. been thinking for some time that similar dynamics to the 68 McCarthy

campaign may very well play out in 08 with Russ

Just to see the Democratic Party recover a little bit of old fashioned idealism would be very nice. This is something that it desperately needs and contrast sharply with the very middle-of-the-road, carefully-worded, prepackaged, poll driven, inside-the-beltway-consultant managed campaigns of the past 30 years that simply have not worked out very well.

[Trevelyan]

6. I am afraid that Bush handlers will keep him in office and that there will

be no 2008 election. (He' rather be off drunk somewhere) TPM Cafe had a link about a year ago to the official congressional site with the bill introduced by Sensenbrenner to get rid of term limits for the president and I do not know how to find if this bill ever came to a vote.

This on latest breaking news yesterday, it says April Fools but the TPM link from almost a year ago wasn't and this reminded me of it:

"Bush preps historic Third Term - memo! is this a joke..?

Exclusive The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the office of the White House Counsel are preparing a draft document laying out the President's wartime authority to remain in office past 2008, The Register has learned.

The scheme is described as an emergency "continuity presidency," made necessary by the extraordinary circumstances and unique challenges of protecting the United States from the threat of international terrorism.

"The world changed on 9/11," a confidential DoJ memo obtained by The Register explains, "and no Administration is US history is better suited to adapt productively to those changes than this one.

"The Attorney General supports the basic framework in the White House Counsel's draft proposal for a future Executive Order establishing a Continuity Presidency, with two provisos: 1. There must be at least the appearance of a time limit, which the AG believes might be satisfied by tying the duration of the Continuity Presidency to the duration of the
GWOT ; and 2. The House and Senate Majority Leaders and the Chairpersons of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees must issue a written certification that they have approved the plan.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/01/gwot_cha /

[Minnesota Libra]

7. I'd love to see a Gore/Feingold or Kerry/Feingold ticket in 08 nt

[blue cat]

11. Me too

I like Edwards and Clark also. We got several good choices.

[abluelady]

8. I am a Feingold fan

and I eas a McCarty fan. I'm glad to realize my ideological ideas have remained steadfast. Now if only one of my guys could win!

[Neil Lisst]

9. Yes, I'm afraid he will.

[stray cat]

10. Feingold in many ways is a moderate and definitely a maverick

He just also happens to be articulate, courageous and responsible to his constitutents.

[radio4progressives]

12. A Moderate considered as a Maverick is what is Surreal, don't you think?

Feingold is definetly a moderate progressive, by any honest measure..

His mild mannerism should have tremendous appeal in this political boiling pot, but it is his ability to be succinct direct and responsible, an incredibe rarity in Washington, that that ought to wow most level headed Americans. Are there any "level headed" Americans in our country anymore?

[stray cat]

14. It is surreal

When courage, common sense and integrity makes a politician a maverick and not extreme policies its a sad state of affairs.

[Jack Rabbit]

13. The situation is entirely different

McCarthy challenged an incumbent president who everybody believed until he said otherwise was seeking re-election. Feingold is not a member of Bush's party, nor can Bush run for another term.

McCarthy challenged Johnson on the war in Vietnam; the issues Feingold raises against Bush at this time have less to do with the war in Iraq then with abuse of executive power.

McCarthy probably could not have won on his own. However, his candidacy paved the way for Robert Kennedy to run. Feingold may have as good a chance as anybody right now and I don't see anybody of the stature of Bobby Kennedy on the horizon.

[karynnj]

16. excellent post

I am so glad I read all the responses before posting - you said everything.

[Seabiscuit]

15. Feingold will win the nomination because there's no current-day

Robert F. Kennedy to derail his nomination as there was when "Clean Gene" ran in 1968.