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Thank-you, Russ Feingold

Last week, something happened in congress that reminded me why a Democratic political philosophy is more in tune with the Consitution and Bill of Rights than a right-wing one. Sen. Russ Feingold had the backbone to propose a formal censure of Pres. Bush for breaking the law with his illegal wiretapping of American citizens. First, as a reminder, I should say that Sen. Feingold is completely in favor of wiretapping terrorists, and what he is explicitly against is the illegal wiretapping of Americans by this corrupt administration.

That we cannot have a national debate about the president's actions in the wiretapping case is a tragedy, as many Democrats have run as far as possible from Feingold's measure, and Republicans, including the speaker of the House, who suggested Feingold is sympathetic with terrorists, are already villifying him. I'm ashamed that my state's senators, Menendez and Lautenberg, have yet to cosponsor the bill, yet the political pressure is on them, particularly from activist groups such as moveon.org. If the public cannot have a concrete issue or stance from which to gauge what constitutes Democratic ideals, then I think we will ultimately fail as a party -- and this would be a travesty since we are about to make historic gains in the House and Senate. Feingold defended the basic rights afforded to the American people in our nation's founding documents; the least we can do is support his courageous stance.

posted by Michael Martin @ 1:48 PM