Russ Feingold

By Dave Lindorff

Liberals are acting all righteous and offended that a member of the Republican opposition, Rep. “Joe” Wilson of South Carolina, would deign to besmirch the “dignity of the presidency” by calling out “Liar!” in the middle of President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening.

Senator Russ Feingold just wrote a letter to President Obama urging him to delay prosecution:

I urge your administration to wait to consider the findings of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's review of the program, and the Department of Justice's investigation, before making any decisions related to prosecutions of any persons involved in these interrogations.

Feingold's letter implies DoJ would not prosecute anyone based on the evidence currently available. Feingold implies the evidence for prosecution would be significantly stronger after SSIC completes its work.

As promised, Sen. Russ Feingold introduced a Constitutional Amendment requiring special elections to fill Senate vacancies.

SECTION 1. No person shall be a Senator from a State unless such person has been elected by the people thereof. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

Of course serious consideration of Constitutional Amendments occurs rarely. So if this "train" is really moving, this would be an excellent time to add some "cars." Here are some ideas:

* Direct election of Presidents; abolish the Electoral College. This has been proposed at various times in our history, most recently by President Jimmy Carter. And it fits perfectly with Feingold's language. We just need a section like this:

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) wrote a good article for Salon about Bush's expected pardons:

An unpardonable use of power

If President Bush cares about his place in history, he should think twice before issuing pardons that call his judgment, and the integrity of the rule of law, into question.

Feingold acknowledges the problem - Bush's pardon power is broad:

The power of the pardon is close to absolute.  Short of interfering with their own impeachment, presidents can pardon whomever they choose. 

The Senate will vote this week on two disastrous bills: $163B for the continued occupation of Iraq and immunity for George Bush and the telecoms who are illegally wiretapping our calls and emails.

On Tuesday, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) launched a filibuster against the "Warrantless Wiretapping Immunity Act" with an impassioned speech on the Senate floor. Dodd is supported by Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Unfortunately it takes 41 votes for a successful filibuster, and we can only count on 30, based on a similar vote on 2/12/08. These Democrats voted wrong. Call them and tell them to join the Dodd Filibuster against telecom immunity.

Just in from Senator Feingold:

Over the last week, I've held Listening Sessions across Wisconsin and heard the same sort of comments that thousands of people like you have emailed my way over the last week - it's time to hold the President, and his administration, accountable.

Become A Citizen Co-Sponsor of Censure

The President and Vice President led our nation into an unwise war, under false pretenses, without adequate planning, and have mismanaged the situation that continues today. The President and Attorney General have time and time again thumbed their noses at the Constitution and the rule of law - on everything from warrantless wiretapping to undermining Congress' role to conduct adequate oversight.

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), on behalf of cosponsor Harry Reid (D-NV) and many other Democratic supporters, went to the Senate floor yesterday and formally introduced the Feingold-Reid bill which, if George W. Bush vetoes the Iraq-withdrawal plan that will hit his desk in the coming weeks, will push the issue further by forcing a troop withdrawal by March of next year.

The bill would end funding specifically for the failed Iraq effort, forcing the president to redeploy American troops elsewhere where, according to Senator Feingold, they can actually begin to defend the country against terror threats.

Just as the United States Senate was dominated last week with the fight to raise the Federal Minimum Wage, the next few days will see a heated battle over what sentiments -- if any -- the Senate should formally express in opposition to George W. Bush's plan to escalate the Iraq war.

While that issue will dominate the woefully single-threaded media on Capitol Hill, a Senate resolution proposed by John Kerry (D-MA) is also very relevant to America's national security and should at least get some mention as it waits in the wings.

A couple of weeks ago, Kerry introduced S. RES. 34, which calls on the White House to start focusing on something vaguely related to the attacks of September 11 and beef up "…the efforts of the United States to defeat the Taliban and terrorist networks in Afghanistan."

One is showing the leadership he has always shown in the Senate and one is displaying the vision we must require of a presidential candidate, but both Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Barack Obama (D-IL) have introduced legislation this week to fight the Bush-McCain Doctrine of escalating the Iraq war.

More importantly, both do it with legislation bearing the force of law and that will go beyond the sentiments expressed in the Levin-Warner "sense of the Senate" resolution, that will certainly pass first.

Feingold, who has been fighting the Bush administration for years on both domestic spying and the Iraq war, proposed the Iraq Redeployment Act of 2007 to use Congress’s federal-funding power to force George W. Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq by prohibiting funds for continued operations six months after enactment.

“By passing my legislation, Congress can respond to the will of the American people and force the President to safely bring our forces out of Iraq,” Feingold said. “With the President set on pursuing his failed policies in Iraq, Congress has the duty to stand up and use its power to stop him. If Congress doesn’t stop this war, it’s not because it doesn’t have the power -- it’s because it doesn’t have the will.”