More on Feingold’s Censure Resolution
The good news is that Senator Harkin has a spine. As for the lack of support from other Democratic Senators, see the debate between Kevin Drum and Glenn Greenwald. I’m with Glenn on this one.
Some of the left are rightfully blasting Senator Allard for this:
Yesterday, in an interview for Fox News Radio, you accused Senator Russ Feingold (D – WI) of “[siding] with terrorists” by introducing a resolution to censure George Bush.
Didn’t Dick Cheney say essentially the same thing about the “junior Senator from Wisconsin” even before the censure motion was made. Of course, the National Review leaps at the opportunity to repeat these lies:
The Democrats had just concluded a successful two-week bout of eroding the president’s national-security credentials with baseless attacks on the Dubai ports deal. Now, the party’s Left apparently believes it’s time to switch back to type and bolster Bush’s national-security credentials by demonstrating the Democrats’ own lack of seriousness in the War on Terror … The resolution will surely strike most Americans as mindless partisanship. It also shifts the political debate back to ground favorable to the White House. The NSA program is relatively popular, indeed is one of the administration’s most popular initiatives at the moment. The White House has a good case to make on its legality, and Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee last week seemed to signal their willingness to acquiesce to a deal giving congressional blessing to the program in exchange for enhanced oversight. Feingold hopes to blow this all up. Republicans should gladly rise to his challenge. Increasing Feingold’s prominence as a spokesman for the Democrats on the War on Terror only benefits the GOP. He epitomizes the Left’s do-nothing, or at least do-the-absolute-minimum, approach to the war. He voted against the Patriot Act, and its reauthorization. He opposes the NSA program. He was against the Iraq war, and opposes using coercive interrogation against terrorists abroad.
Never mind the fact that we can wiretap legally under the FISA act. Never mind the fact that Bush’s actions are clearly a violation of the FISA act, which is constitutional (in spite of Senator Specter’s flip-flopping claim to the contrary). Never mind the clearly partisan attacks from the dishonest demagogues like Dick Cheney. The last sentence in this NRO tirade undermines their whole spin. The decision on March 19, 2003 to invade Iraq helped Al Qaeda. So Senator Feingold’s opposition to this stupid decision shows he is more serious about the war against terror than the political hacks and general idiots in the White House.