Feingold's fight

The right has started the public square flogging of Senator Russ Feingold for his resolution to censure President Bush for his illegal wiretapping program. They are yelling things like "pure politics" and claiming he is doing it to puff up his chances to run for president by making himself the darling of the far left of the Democratic Party.

Senator Feingold is doing this because he firmly believes it is the right thing to do. If this were a move purely to help him run for president, it would be a foolish one. Ask Howard Dean how gathering up the far left of the party works as a strategy for presidential politics.

History will mark this as the right thing to do. This is the move of a conservative, not a liberal. Conservatives are the ones that are supposedly for keeping government power in check and out of the private lives of the American people. The conservative wing of the Republican Party should have been the ones leading the charge on this one.

If the Republicans won't remember the early history of our country and the rights it was built on, they would do well to remember at least the recent past. They ran to the floor with impeachment proceedings about a president that lied to the American public about a personal relationship. They didn't seem to mind that it really looked like a bunch of dirty old men enjoying the details of someone else's sex life. They were standing up to president lying by gosh!

If President Bush authorizing a program to wiretap without a warrant and lying about it isn't a serious as President Clinton authorizing himself to have sex with an intern and lying about, let's try an experiment.

Pick which statement comes from Feingold about his censure resolution and which ones are about President Clinton lying and the whole impeachment mess.
This one:

Not only did the President break the law, he also actively misled Congress and the American people about his actions...He has fundamentally violated the trust of the American people.

Or this one:

President X deliberately misled and deceived the American people, and people in all branches of the United States government...his conduct has violated the trust of the American people...

Or this one:

Not only did he break the law, he also violated the sacred trust of the office of the President. And in so doing, he violated his oath of office.

Need more time to think? It's easy to understand why given the hypocrisy of the Republicans on this one.

The first statement is from Feingold. The second comes from a censure resolution of President Clinton about the intern affair. The last is from Senator Senator Bunning's (R-KY) floor statement during the impeachment trial of President Clinton.

Problem is, all three could apply to either situation but the lies from President Bush are much, much more serious. And if you don't think that President Bush broke the law with his wiretapping program or misled the American public about it and about going into a war, you're not being honest with yourself and should insert President Clinton into the same situation and see if you feel the same. The freedoms in the consitution weren't meant to be put on hold to support your party at all costs.

Honestly, which Senator will be remembered as looking out for American rights by historians? Senator Feingold for trying to stop a President from listening to phone conversations without a warrant or Senator Bunnning who enjoyed listening to phone conversations about someone else having sex?