RUSS FEINGOLD: SUPERHERO. YOU KNOW ANYONE ELSE RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT WHO WOULD ENDORSE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE?

I sensed Feingold was the realest guy in the presidential sweepstakes since Howard Dean. I haven't met Feingold. I want to though. Almost every politician I run across seems like a studied phony. I don't just mean the really gross ones like Biden and Lieberman and Frist and Santorum. I mean, regardless of party or ideology, these Inside the Beltway freaks all have something in common-- something very ugly. I was on a conference call with Schumer and Emanuel last week. I doubt I would have felt more like a needed a shower if it had been Brownback and Blunt. I mean "creepy" and "loathsome" don't even begin to describe the lot of them. That's why when I meet a real human who's in politics it always surprises me and even inspires me.

I've liked Feingold from the first. I wasn't happy about every single little thing he's done-- like when he voted to confirm that horrible right-wing predator Roberts-- but Feingold's overall approach seems human and trustworthy. Today I was pretty shocked when I saw a small WASHINGTON POST piece that is probably tantamount to him declaring he's not expecting to get elected president in 2008. He confronted the hottest button right-wing divisive-tool-- their toxic homophobia-- and answered it the way any normal American should: he said bans on same sex marriage have no place in our nation's laws. Simple-- the way it should be.

Feingold didn't just start spouting off about it. Someone asked him at a town hall meeting in Wisconsin. "Obviously, it's a very difficult issue and evokes a lot of emotions. I think it's something ultimately that people throughout the country will accept, but it's not an easy issue." He accused right-wing extremists of using it as a wedge issue "to hurt Democrats who are against discrimination."
You want someone with a sense of fairness and the courage to speak out? Look no further.

Right-wingers, of course, have a very different approach, which has been demonstrated by the Bush Regime again and again.


WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE: ACT BLUE OPEN FOR BUSINESS FOR RUSS

After Russ' courageousness yesterday I decided to add his Progressive Patriots Fund to the DWT ACT BLUE Page. Let's show America's best Senator some love.