Free Republic

• What if Secret Donor Money -- funneled through a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit with no obligation to reveal its donors -- was used to influence not just your run-of-the mill election, but a sitting United States Senator as he ran a Senate confirmation hearing of a federal judge? An official constitutional duty of the United States Senate? • What if that United States Senator secretly influenced by that Secret Donor Money were named Russell Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin?

“Judge Judy, also known as Judge Judith Sheindlin, is celebrating her 10th year on television, and she has never been more popular. She has one of the top programs in syndication, earning her a reported $30 million a year. Her books, with titles like "Don't Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It's Raining," and "Beauty Fades, Dumb Is Forever," have been best sellers. And she has some serious fans. Last summer, both the novelist Kurt Vonnegut and the Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen made semi-serious suggestions that she should be considered to fill Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on...

Like New York Senator Hillary Clinton, Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold has been busy the last few years trying to establish a more moderate public image, sometimes distancing himself from the far left extreme base in control of today’s Democratic Party, often working with folks across the aisle like Arizona Senator John McCain, who have already established themselves as world class RINOs, (Republican In Name Only). As the 2006 mid-term elections draw near, and Feingold begins to set his sights on a Presidential run in 2008, he must find a way to re-connect with that left-wing base if he hopes to...

Republicans are denouncing Senator Russ Feingold's proposal to "censure" President Bush for his warrantless wiretaps on al Qaeda, but we'd like to congratulate the Wisconsin Democrat on his candor. He's had the courage to put on the table what Democrats are all but certain to do if they win either the House or Senate in November. In fact, our guess is that censure would be the least of it. The real debate in Democratic circles would be whether to pass articles of impeachment.

A new call to censure President Bush for authorizing warrantless wiretapping of Americans as part of the war on terror may have less impact on Mr. Bush than on contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, such as Senator Clinton, according to political analysts. Senator Feingold of Wisconsin, who is among the Democrats exploring a presidential bid, said he will introduce a censure resolution in the Senate today. "It's an unusual step," Mr. Feingold said yesterday on ABC's "This Week" program. "It's a big step, but what the president did by consciously and intentionally violating the Constitution and laws...

Senate Judiciary Dems Take Aim at Alito Nov 09 6:51 PM US/Eastern Email this story By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent WASHINGTON Senate Democrats issued their first coordinated challenge to Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, seeking extensive records about his participation in a 2002 appeals case despite a six-figure investment with one of the defendants. In a letter to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the eight Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Alito had promised the panel in 1990 he would "disqualify myself from any cases involving the Vanguard companies." The letter...

Sitting Idly While Our Children Are Perverted? In 2002, the FEC decided (4-2) that the, McCain-Feingold Campaign Reforn Act did not apply to the Internet. I don’t know what McCain was thinking by wanting to apply the law to the Internet, but wasn’t it obvious to him that any “control” over the Internet would eventually result in silencing the conservative voices that populate it? You’d have to be brain dead to believe that a liberal judge like U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, would tailor the decision to stop Billionaire George Soros, and leave blogger alone. Silence the conservative...

In force for less than a month, campaign finance is already dead. It must be a democratic land speed record. In force for less than a month, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform is already being declared a failure--by the same people who labored for years to pass it. So while money will still be raised and surely spent, all the reformers have accomplished is to make it harder for the media to track it and keep voters informed about its sources. Like the Prohibitionists, they are merely pushing the money into the shadows. But we hardly need to wait for...