Feingold To Attempt Censure: Nutroots® Applaud
In the type of hopeless lost cause that gets the progressive tails wagging, Senator Russ Feingold is going to attempt a censure of Bush:
In an exclusive interview on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold called on the Senate to publicly admonish President Bush for approving domestic wiretaps on American citizens without first seeking a legally required court order.
“This conduct is right in the strike zone of the concept of high crimes and misdemeanors,” said Feingold, D-Wis., a three-term senator and potential presidential contender.
He said President Bush had, “openly and almost thumbing his nose at the American people,” continued the NSA domestic wiretap program.
President Bush has long asserted that the so-called ‘warrantless wiretaps’ are an essential tool in the war on terror.
But in a copy of the censure resolution obtained by ABC News, Feingold asserts the president, “repeatedly misled the public prior to the public disclosure of the National Security Agency surveillance program by indicating his administration was relying on court orders to wiretap suspected terrorists inside the United States.”
Feingold cites three instances over a year-long period in which Bush outlined the necessity of a court order or a judge’s permission prior to a domestic wiretap of a U.S. citizen.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., also appearing exclusively on “This Week,” defended Bush.
“Russ is just wrong, he is flat wrong, he is dead wrong,” Frist said.
Glenn Greenwald will be thrilled.
Before anyone else gets too excited, this is not the first introduction of a censure bill (the ethically challenged John Conyers has tried this stunt, too). It’s worth pointing out again, though, to those Republicans and conservatives who might be contemplating staying home in November, what a non-stop orgy of this kind of stuff we would see under a Democratic-led Congress…
UPDATE 1:21 p.m.: As I predicted, Greenwald is thrilled…the Huff’n'Puffers are pretty stoked, too…
Feingold: Censure Bush (Video)
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On this morning’s This Week with George Stephanopoulus, Russ Feingold made a surprise announcement:
…Feingold …
This is no more than an election year ploy. Can we say desperation. They know there is no way Bush and/or Cheney will be impeached and convicted. So this is their next step down. Now they will try to censure him. ROTFLMAO. What a bunch of losers.
[...] Decision ‘08 Technorati Tags: Bush Censure Feingold nsa Wiretaps Filed in: Moonbats, War On Terror, Politics, NSA Wiretap’s | No Comments » [...]
Fool’s Feingold
The problem is were there “wiretaps of Americans”?
A wiretap is defined as either a bug put in someone’s room to eavesdrop on conversations or a device used to monitor communications.
So far, no one has complained that electronic bugs are are …
Feingold doesn’t do “election year ploys” — whatever you want to say about him, he doesn’t really do stuff out of political calculation. (See, on the one hand, his being the only one to vote against the original Patriot Act, and on the other hand, his vote to confirm Chief Justice Roberts. Neither vote made any kind of political sense at the time.)
I doubt the other Democrats will go along with it, but it’s too bad, because it is a good idea. Bush ignored a law that was meant to prevent exactly the kind of behavior he engaged in; Congress has at the very least a moral duty to say, on the record, that he shouldn’t have broken the law. Instead of what they’re doing, which is change the law retroactively to make Bush’s actions legal.
Oh, and if you’re depending on the Senate Republicans to make the case for Bush’s actions, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Did you see Frist responding to Feingold’s announcement? A bigger bunch of pointless, outdated talking points that no one believes any more (the President is acting boldly and making us safer, Feingold is giving aid and comfort to the enemy, yada yada). The Republicans totally think it’s still 2004.
America is involved in war. And it has a fifth column in its midst that is preparing to stab its brave soldies in the back. Any responsible government would use the necessary and effective means to prevent this from happening. The Bush administration is doing no less.
Senator Feingold by playing cheap politics with this vital issue of protecting America from its internal enemies, is “cheapening” the protection of America, hence, making him completely unqualified, and most of the other Democratic senators, from taking the reins of leadership in these dangerous times for America and the world. But history will have the final say and confine Feingold to the obscurity he deserves.
http://congeorgekotzabasis.blogspot.com
America is involved in war. And it has a fifth column in its midst that is preparing to stab its brave soldies in the back.
Oh, those 2004 talking points. So cute. Conservatives are like hippies still talking about free love. Serious people have moved on to serious issues, like the fact that Presidents can’t just ignore laws they don’t like.
First Censor, Now Censure
Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), forever known as the “Feingold” in the “McCain-Feingold” legislation limiting our 1st Amendment rights, recently called for a censure of the President. Essentially, Sen. Feingold wishes to rebuke…
I don’t think Feingold is playing politics – everything I’ve seen of him indicates he tends to be fairly idealistic, and even when I disagree with him, I admire him because he doesn’t seem to have fallen into that reflexive anti-Bush fury that seems to have taken over much of the left.
That said, I wonder if this will hurt Democrats in the end. They clearly have decided they don’t want to campaign on this issue, and Feingold is forcing them to take a stand. He may be idealistic, but most politicians are not and prefer to wiggle around.
Feingold Seeks to Censure President Bush
If an NSA agent is listening in on Osama Bin Laden himself, and Bin Laden calls a citizen of the United States of America, should that NSA agent hang up the phone?
better late than never. i just want to point out…as a few already have, how lame the republican talking points have become. there is no room for debate. its like we are trapped in a closet and the lights are out and no one will come and let us out. “i feel like i’m taking crazy pills.”
[...] This proves Bush is right about like um everything: “If people like Democrat Russ Feingold and the folks at the ACLU had their way this attack probably could have been carried out. Which just goes to show how these people put politics and “beating Bush” over national security.” [...]