Russ Feingold is a minor deity, and I stand in awe

He is speaking on C-Span2 in opposition of the Patriot Act

his reference to today's NYT article was perfect.

Thank the senate for people like him.

it was a very unusual election that put him in the Senate in the first place.. he would never make it there otherwise. (one commercial had him holding up a newspaper saying "Elvis endorses Feingold" and saying don't believe everything you read)

and when I say Rural, I mean "Not Madison", "Not Milwaukee" and "Not Green Bay (Fox valley)". There were three Democrats running for I'm pretty sure was an open seat, two with high name recognition (one was in the House) and Feingold. he was pretty much written off, but both Democrats started Negative early and a LOT. It was a horribly negative campaign (they were beating up on each other and ignored Feingold), and Feingold never went negative, (he didn't have to, the other two were beating each other up) His ads were him giving a tour of his home, "lots of closet space, look.. no skeletons". holding up a paper with the headline "Elvis endorses Feingold". they started taking shots at him.. but he was a shoe in to win the primary. Then came the general.. and it was pretty standard.. taking backhanded pot shots at him while he stayed positive. and viola.. Wisconsin has one of the poorest US Senators in the nation! :)

I was at UWGB at the time, and several of my Poli Sci classmates were volunteering on his campaign.
(I was a Lawton-for-State-Senate volunteer, which didn't leave me alot of free time.)

:hi:

You have reason to be proud. :D And to think.....I get stuck with Lieberman. :argh:

www.russforpresident.com

www.russforpresident.com

;)

just an FYI. :patriot:

http://www.kidport.com/RefLib/UsaHistory/AmericanRevolution/TeaParty.htm#The%20"Boston%20Tea%20Party"

:patriot:

in celebration of Russ Feingold Day.

that he alone was the only person to oppose the Pat Act.

I like to refer to it as:

Reichstag Fire Decree

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_Fire_Decree

He is great. :loveya:

Not unlike Wellstone was.

I want to like him but I DO NOT understand that vote.

He knew there were worse nominations coming down the pike, and he was preparing for the great fillibuster on the Patriot Act.

I think it was politics, but principled.

That vote balanced against everything else this administration has promulgated is easily forgivable - particularly if he fights against Alito, if Alito needs to be fought against, that is - (it looks like does to me).

he often makes sense and seems quite real which are 2 important points
but when there are recent votes (at least roberts anyway) that APPEAR to fly in the face of what i thought feingold stood for then i also would like to hear the explanation of that vote

certainly there is more to a politician than one vote (though i have to say the iraq war resolution comes pretty close) so by no means would i write feingold off
i just want to know more about the roberts vote
its puzzling and hopefully theres some real explanation

first he seemed a little tiny bit defensive (could be me reading too closely into his facial expression) said, gave the official line, that he felt he would be a good independent justice, putting aside his ideology etc..

second, he did mention that he got a lot of responses from his constituents asking the same question - i honestly believe he needed to keep his powder dry for another much more extremist, that he knows is/was on Bush's list of nominees. that Roberts was probably the best we could hope etc, and that he needed to show that he is willing to vote in favor of someone Bush put through that was not as bad as others are.

does that make sense? i can see the perspective, given the situation and i think it was a reasonable calculation, even if i do disagree with the vote.

i realize i dont know all there is to know about the politics of politics but giving approval to a sc nominee that comes from bush merits an automatic massive in depth review at the very least
let alone an approval

but for him to say he approved of roberts because he is the best we could hope for doesnt ring true to me
it doesnt hold water
maybe roberts is the "best" someone could hope for coming from bush but that still can make him a rotten choice and certainly not worthy of a rubberstamp vote

also
i just dont get that any dem senator would use the reasoning that they want to approve the lesser of any evils
if someone is harmful to this nation in any way then our reps have the absolute duty to stand up and say so

and on the other hand if he doesnt believe roberts is all that bad and he wanted to show he could support the president etc
well that doesnt hold any more water than the other argument he uses

i still dont understand why dems (or any politician for that matter) try to curry any favor with this administration
they are outright criminals and i dont want anyone supporting anything or anyone that bush puts out there unless they really deserve to be supported
and since its bush we already know the answer to that

i want someone to fight at all times if the situation calls for it
i know we have to choose our battles but thats what the dem supporters keep believing & repeating

and if i hear "keeping their powder dry"
one more time.....

they have powder to use and apparently some dont know how to use it

ps: this is not all about feingold
he seems a good guy but brings a question mark with him if he is going to use a cliched/unclear defense of why exactly he voted roberts in
though as i said before there is more to anyone than one vote
i just wish his response was rooted in admirable truth and really explained things more than it did

thanks for your response
i appreciate it

on edit: feingold seems to have more integrity than most of the others so i am really rooting for him to take that and bring the rest of his colleagues with him~
look forward to seeing much more about him in the coming year(s)

and i very much appreciate his leadership against the patriot act (among other things)

I've decided to contribute to his campaign, he's the one we need to lead this country out of the evil morass it has fallen to.

Go Feingold!

Yeah, he is pretty spiffy, isn't he.

I do NOT think that Obama is the second coming. his youth provides energy, but his fear of taking positions will come to haunt him.

:applause: for Feingold AND his guts!

when it was by far the least popular thing to do back in 2001.

Good for him!

Living in Wisconsin, I feel very lucky he represents my state and our country.

He'd get my vote in '08.


:bounce: :bounce:

Proxmire AND
McCarthy?

how does your state ever do it?