FEINGOLD'S LEADERSHIP HANDS BUSH A HUGE DEFEAT IN THE SENATE. HATED "PATRIOT ACT" DE-RAILED IN BI-PARTISAN STRATEGY

The Senate finally came up with someone to make them do a little soul searching and help them find that they have enough collective cajones to stand up to BushCo's headlong rush into fascism. Wisconsin Democratic hero Russ Feingold, carefully put together a bipartisan coalition to defeat Bush's extension of the misnamed "Patriot Act." Enough Senators joined Feingold to prevent Bush's Forces of Darkness from imposing provisions that clearly infringe on basic, inalienable American freedoms dealing with privacy and liberty. Even hard right conservatives like Idaho's Larry Craig joined Feingold to offer Bush the worst congressional defeat of his miserable presidency.

The Bushites were not able to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a threatened filibuster by Feingold. The final vote was 52-47. Even Bush's right-arm in the Senate, opportunistic Majority Leader Bill Frist (currently under Federal investigation for financial crimes) changed his vote at the last minute when he realized Feingold would win. (The other Republicans Feingold was able to persuade to stand up for the Constitution were John Sununu, Larry Craig, Chuck Hagel and Lisa Murkowski.)


SATURDAY UPDATE-- FEINGOLD TO BUSH: "YOU'RE NOT KING, ASSHOLE" (BUT A LITTLE MORE POLITE)

You can read the whole report from BLOOMBERG here but the basic gist is that Bush illegally spied on Americans and Feingold called him out on it. "'We have a president, not a king, and that's the way he's talking,'' Feingold said in an interview with CNN. 'What he's doing, I believe, is illegal. And it's really quite a shocking moment in the history of our country.'''