Though there is still much time to go, Hillary better have something more than a rabbit to pull out of her hat for that trick.
Posted on 03/26/2006 2:56:01 AM PST by leadpenny
WASHINGTON - While only two Democrats in the Senate have embraced Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record)'s call for censuring President Bush, the idea is increasing his standing among many Democratic voters as he ponders a bid for the party's presidential nomination in 2008
Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, insists his proposal has nothing to do with his political ambitions. But he does challenge Democrats who argue it will help energize Republicans.
"Those Democrats said that within two minutes of my announcing my idea," Feingold said in a telephone interview last week. "I don't see any serious evidence of that."
A Newsweek poll taken March 16-17 found that 50 percent of those surveyed opposed censuring Bush while 42 percent supported it, but among Democrats, 60 percent favored the effort.
Feingold's resolution would censure the president for authorizing a warrantless surveillance program, which the senator contends is illegal. Co-sponsors are Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Barbara Boxer of California.
The White House argues that Bush was authorized to order eavesdropping on American citizens under his wartime powers as commander in chief.
Feingold said his sole purpose was to hold Bush accountable, but he argued that it's also good politics.
"These Democratic pundits are all scared of the Republican base getting energized, but they're willing to pay the price of not energizing the Democratic base," he said. "It's an overly defensive and meek approach to politics."
Some Democrats have accused Feingold of putting his 2008 presidential ambitions over helping Democrats try to recapture the House and Senate in this year's midterm elections. Should Feingold run, his opposition to the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act and the spying program would help position him as the liberal candidate.
Many also see his effort as a distraction at a time when the Bush administration was on the ropes over Iraq and a since-scuttled port deal.
"It just takes us off discussions we ought to be having in this country on issues that really matter in people's lives," said Rep. Sherrod Brown (news, bio, voting record), a liberal Democrat from Ohio who is running for Senate.
Some Republicans have been thanking Feingold for what they consider a political fumble.
"This is such a gift," Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show. The National Review came to the same conclusion. In an online editorial titled, "Feingold's Gift to the GOP," the conservative magazine wrote that Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman would hug Feingold if given the chance.
The Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing Friday on Feingold's resolution.
Mehlman, visiting Wisconsin last week, skipped the hug and instead criticized Feingold. That reinforced an RNC radio ad buy in the state, in which a narrator says, "Call Russ Feingold and ask him why he's more interested in censuring the president than protecting our freedom."
Feingold's response, essentially, is bring it on.
"I welcome their attempt to make a campaign issue of the question of whether there will be accountability for the president's breaking the law," he said. "They will remind people every minute that the president thumbed his nose at the law."
it seems that the path the RATS, or some of the RATS are heading towards is that they could win the 2008 election by advocating immediate troop withdrawl. it is a bad thing to suffer from vietnam era lsd flashbacks.
The only people for the most part who want to cut and run are anti-americans, not even the soldiers want to leave without finishing the job first, as proven by the fact that the majority of the U.S. military voted for President Bush in the last election. After the U.S. military was used before hand.
it is a bad thing to suffer from vietnam era lsd flashbacks.
Which partly explains why the leftists have gone insane.
I think that if Feingold doesn't offer the resolution, the Republicans should. Let's get the cards on the table.
How about censuring Clinton for the Kosovo devacle?
I thought Frist already did that?
This the absolute best they can do because there is NO CASE for censure, let alone any basis for their accusations.
Are these the people we want "leading" our country?
Now I am confused. Hasn the Senate appointed a Committee to study whether in fact President Bush broke the law. It seems Feingold has already decided the question for the committee.
Can you believe this prick could be running against Mccain? Talk about a choice between Frick and Frack.
Normally I work at the polls , If McCain runs against this POS or Hillary , I will take that day off and not go at all. There wont be a choice to make. Either way you get nothing.
Hillary is not going to allow anyone else near the 08 nomination.
Vote Constitution Party.
At least you will have voted.
No way am I voting for McInsane.
The Left knows conservatives will have a hard time voting for this jerk. That's why the MSM loves him so much. If he's nominated, he guarantees a demagogue demonRAT victory.
And he's such a megalomaniac, he allows himself to be their useful idiot.
Then you have will done your very best to elect Hillary, and that is the way it is.
There is no such thing as a 'protest' vote.
Only Perot-ese fools who allow Clintons to drag this country into the gutter - enjoy your day off.
Why not just vote for the martian moonbat party?
either one has the same chance. -ZERO.
Though there is still much time to go, Hillary better have something more than a rabbit to pull out of her hat for that trick.
Thermodynamic Law Party!!
So we get the real Hilary instead of the male version. Theres a Difference?
I hope you don't believe she gave those FBI files back to the FBI before she got what she wanted. She's got plenty of hat tricks.
More wishful thinking from the Junk Media. They want this to be true so they report it hoping that if they repeat it enough it will be true.
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