THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING RUSS FEINGOLD. WILL THERE BE MORE LIKE HIM?

A couple weeks ago Russ Feingold, his daughter Ellen and her boyfriend Ruben went to the Westgate Cinema in Madison to see BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. When asked what he thought afterwards, he said
"It's a wonderful movie. It ranks with 'Walk the Line' and is slightly better than 'Syriana.'" Big whoop? You think so? Try getting a review-- let alone a positive one-- out of another straight American politician and see what happens. (For that matter, try getting a review out of any of the GOP congressional closet queens-- David Dreier, Jim McCrery or Mark Foley-- all of whom probably went to see it in full drag so they wouldn't be recognized.) Bush's reaction was more typical. When asked what he thought he turned 20 shades of purple, giggled like an 11 year old girl and stuttered and mumbled semi-coherently.

But Russ Feingold does more than just speak his mind truthfully-- although after this current Washington bunch, just that would seem nearly miraculous. Feingold isn't afraid to stand up and take unpopular stands-- even if it means he's standing alone. The obvious example is how Feingold was the only Senator to stand up and say no to the Patriot Act when BushCo was beating the 9-11 fear tom-tom loudest and everyone-- or everyone else-- was scared the new McCarthyism would eat them alive. The Repugs thought they had a potent weapon against him in his 2004 re-election effort. They didn't. Although Kerry only beat Bush by something like 12,000 votes, Feingold glided home with a 330,000 vote margin. People in Wisconsin seemed to be saying that like honesty over weasel-words.

You may remember a week or two ago there was a momentary stirring of the last vestiges of patriotism and love of America in a handful of Republicans. You may have missed it if you sneezed but even the Old Gray Lady was excited enough to write on February 11 that "When Representative Heather A. Wilson broke ranks with President Bush on Tuesday to declare her "serious concerns" about domestic eavesdropping, she gave voice to what some fellow Republicans were thinking, if not saying. Now they are speaking up — and growing louder." But not too loud, as it turned out.

The TIMES went on, promisingly, "In interviews over several days, Congressional Republicans have expressed growing doubts about the National Security Agency program to intercept international communications inside the United States without court warrants. A growing number of Republicans say the program appears to violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that created a court to oversee such surveillance, and are calling for revamping the FISA law." Susan Collins (R-ME) claimed "There is considerable concern about the administration's just citing the president's inherent authority or the authorization to go to war with Iraq as grounds for conducting this program. It's a stretch." And when Bush sent Alberto over to the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer some questions from the normally complacent senators, 4 Repugs joined the Dems in a little act tough drama. You had noises of unrest coming out of Hagel (R-NE), Graham (R-SC), Specter (R-PA), Snowe (R-ME), Murkowski (R-AK)... But, alas, some noises and an act is all it turned out to be.

Karl Rove stuck his head out of his hole, snarled and screeched that if one single Republican voted against the so-called "war-time president" on this they were dead meat. And that was that. One GOP wag said Hagel peed down his leg so bad that he had to hobble into the gents' room.

Pretty much the same thing happened last week when the Patriot Act came up for re-evaluation. Again there was some rumbling on the right and some tough talk from a few Democrats. And then everyone agreed to go along with BushCo and approve the Constitution-shredding thing again. Except one person. Russ Feingold mounted a one-man filibuster of George Bush's disgraceful charade to strip American citizens of their our rights.

Kicking off the obviously doomed filibuster, Feingold made it clear why he wasn't buckling: "What we are seeing is quite simply a capitulation to the intransigent and misleading rhetoric of a White House that sees any effort to protect civil liberties as a sign of weakness." Two days later CAPITOL HILL BLUE reported that "The USA Patriot Act is headed toward renewal with most of its onerous individual rights violations intact and broad Senate support for a White House-brokered compromise that adds a few token new civil liberties protections to the terror-fighting law." Only Robert Byrd, "the conscience of the senate" and retiring Independent Jim Jeffords voted with Feingold to reject this abomination which, Feingold points out still allows "government fishing expeditions" through the seizure of "sensitive business records of innocent, law-abiding Americans."

Meanwhile, on the same day, Dave Stout in the NY TIMES reported that "The Senate Intelligence Committee decided today not to investigate President Bush's domestic surveillance program, at least for the time being" and the following day the Bush Regime helped derail a Senate bid to investigate the illegal warrantless eavesdropping program by rejecting Congress's request to have former attorney general John Ashcroft and other officials testify. According to the NY TIMES "The actions underscored a dramatic and possibly permanent drop in momentum for a congressional inquiry, which had seemed likely two months ago."

Senate Democrats, wringing their hands, said the "Republican-led Congress was abdicating its obligations to oversee a controversial program in which the National Security Agency has monitored perhaps thousands of phone calls and e-mails involving US residents and foreign parties without obtaining warrants from a secret court that handles such matters."

No one is going to blow a trumpet and say, "OK, the American experiment is over and fascism is the order of the day. Everybody line up for your armband now. Mach schnell! No, we'll just keep drifting and drifting in that direction. There are a few people like Russ Feingold compelled to stand up to the fascist thugs for an American people who, for the most part, don't even have a clue they're being victimized and will tear their defenders apart after a few barks from the "war time leader."


10 PM UPDATE: HAGEL TAKES HIS LITTLE REVENGE ON THE EMPIRE

Although Hagel went along with the Bushites when Rove yelled and voted to allow them to shred some more Constitution, he got even today, not in the Senate (or even on late night TV which has been seeing an awful lot of stuff like this lately) but in the Omaha World Herald where he commented, snarkily, on Cheney's alleged hunting accident: "If he'd been in the military, he would have learned gun safety." SMACK! Now, you take that, girl! And don't you send that Rove out no more to make me pee in my good pants!


MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: BLAME MIKE DEWINE'S SUPINE COWARDICE FOR ANOTHER ADVANCE OF FASCISM

Today's WASHINGTON POST has an inside look at how the Bush Regime derailed a bipartisan investigation into their illegal, unconstitutional spying. In the words of the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller (who shamefully voted for cloture in the Alito confirmation and against fellow Democrats fighting desperately to save constitutional government), "The White House has applied heavy pressure in recent weeks to prevent the committee from doing its job." Embarrassed by their roles as impotent and pathetic fake moderates, Hagel and Snowe both refused to answer THE POST's questions but the most sickening role of all was played by Ohio political hack, Mike DeWine, who offered to carry BushCo's water and offer the fig-leaf of cover so that another piece of our precious Constitutional protections from tyranny could be stomped all over. No one who loves American freedom or liberty should consider voting for DeWine in November. He's a viper beneath contempt who has traded away our rights for a pat on the head (and access to Diebold voting machine codes?) from BushCo.