![](http://www.hillnews.com/030602/visuals/Feingold%20russ%201%2024%2002.jpg")
I think he looks like a dork.
Posted on 11/13/2005 8:07:26 PM PST by Crackingham
After winning, at the relatively tender age of 51, a third Senate term in 2004 with 55 percent of Wisconsin's vote, five points better than John Kerry's winning percentage, and carrying 27 of the 45 Wisconsin counties that President Bush carried, Russ Feingold went to play golf -- on a public course, this fastidious populist stresses -- in Greenville, Ala. That town might hereafter be known as the birthplace of Feingold's epiphany.
Feingold says, implausibly, that ``I don't think about it'' -- seeking the Democrats' 2008 presidential nomination -- ``very much.'' But he does brood about a ``50-state strategy'' for Democrats. He found many Alabamians with problems common to Americans everywhere, and receptive to ``progressive'' solutions.
Well, yes. Hundreds of thousands of Alabamians always vote Democratic. John Kerry won 693,933. Al Gore, 692,611. Even George McGovern won 256,923. There are ``progressives'' everywhere, and in the Deep South there still are ``yellow dog Democrats'' who would vote for a yellow dog if it were on the Democratic ticket. But Democratic presidential candidates have lost Alabama in 10 of the last 11 elections -- a Georgian carried the state in 1976. Today, by the time a Democratic presidential aspirant has genuflected at all the altars erected by ``the groups'' -- the organizations of liberal activists -- he or she is disqualified from turning red states blue.
A good liberal -- the Senate's most pure, according to the liberal Americans for Democratic Action, whose rating of his career (97) is higher than that of Ted Kennedy (90), Barbara Boxer (92), John Kerry (93) and Hillary Clinton (95) -- Feingold is a conscientious recycler. Of chimeras. For example, he favors energy ``independence,'' a goal that has steadily receded in the more than three decades since President Nixon endorsed it.
He also favors fiscal responsibility. His office wall is adorned with a large display of the 82-point -- yes, 82 -- plan for reducing the deficit, a plan featured in his first Senate campaign in 1992, when Ross Perot was helpfully rampant on the subject of balanced budgets. But fiscal rectitude, a faith constantly avowed but rarely constraining, thrills few liberals -- or conservatives, on current evidence.
Still, Feingold is as Wisconsin, and in some ways as admirable, as Leinenkugel's beer. Since Robert La Follette Sr. became governor 104 years ago, Wisconsin has frequently produced politicians, such as former Sen. William Proxmire, who flamboyantly favor, not always convincingly, both progressive policies -- e.g., workers' compensation, the income tax -- and government frugality.
Feingold became luminous in the eyes of ``the groups,'' who consider most congressional Democrats spineless, by casting the only Senate vote against the Patriot Act. But he peeved those people by voting to confirm John Roberts as chief justice, and his presidential aspirations could be injured by the chief justice casting the deciding vote in some 5-4 ruling offensive to ``the groups.'' Such as one overturning the political speech-rationing apparatus erected by the main reason Feingold is a familiar name -- the McCain-Feingold law.
I think he looks like a dork.
I'll take "People who should avoid small planes" for $400, Alex.
He is a dork. Gad, I hope he runs, remember Carol Mosley Braun? This pos doesn't deserve to be a senator. What a moron. He's 'not' my senator.
Maybe he'll find some other non-issue he can sell to the snake-oil buyers out there, if McPain doesn't beat him to it.
Democrats would never nominate a Jew for president -- even a self-hating one.
I live in WI so I have the misfortune to have Feingold as one of my senators. Kohl is just as bad and is so rich we can't get rid of him-he owns all the airwaves in election years. Feingold is a mental lightweight and could never run a small business, let alone the USA.
Agreed. Democrats would have to do some real self-reflecting, which would be like Dracula trying to catch his image in the proverbial mirror.
It looks like the Seven Dwarfs are starting to assemble again.
He is a dork but wouldn't you love to watch this lefty and the beast in a primary run. The moonbats at moveon, kos and du would be sending this moron money by the bucket and the beast would have to keep publically drifting {or is it grifting} left. Not that it would stop her from claiming in the general election that she never meant what she said in iowa {and the msm from covering for the cloven footed one}.
He is a dork but wouldn't you love to watch this lefty and the beast in a primary run. The moonbats at moveon, kos and du would be sending this moron money by the bucket and the beast would have to keep publically drifting {or is it grifting} left. Not that it would stop her from claiming in the general election that she never meant what she said in iowa {and the msm from covering for the cloven footed one}.
Had he ran in 2004 he could have very well upsetted Bush.
Feingold at least has principles. None of this voted for it before voting against it garbage. He has been pretty nice about letting Bush get who he wants in his Cabinet as well. Frankly, he wouldn't be the most embarrassing Democrat to have as President.
Is it just me, or does he sound surprised to have found "Alabamians with problems common to Americans everywhere"?
"The Democratic Party is much more tolerant of things, but a twice-divorced single man would have very little chance of being elected president. That is not something that would appeal to any red state." University of Virginia's Larry Sabato
We are SO proud of him here! Aside from the CFR, of course. Whenever the Senate vote was 98-1 (sKerry wasn't there), I knew without looking who it'd be. When other votes were more divided, the majority of dims were just partisan. Russ just seemed to be contrary.
But he peeved those people by voting to confirm John Roberts as chief justice, and his presidential aspirations could be injured by the chief justice casting the deciding vote in some 5-4 ruling offensive to "the groups." Such as one overturning the political speech-rationing apparatus erected by the main reason Feingold is a familiar name -- the McCain-Feingold law.
Look how far apart those 2 events were! Can you say "getting ready to grovel in order to be POTUS?"
C'mon, does this remind anyone of anything? How about:
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