Feingold's Folly

Joe Gandelman has some good stuff on Sen. Feingold's censure resolution. I have to agree with Joe on this one. This proposal is not only going nowhere, its horrible timing for such a move. The Republicans are just coming off a rah-rah session in Tennessee and now Feingold is giving them another reason to unite behind the president. Here's Gandelman:

That's clear, if you look at the chronology of where the White House was, what polls were showing, how Republicans were scrambling to distance themselves from the White House amid signs that the GOP base was starting to sour on Bush, and the not-good-news-for-Bush topics of news cycles.

Feingold's proposal shifted all of that in a way that, in the end, could help Democratic party activists send a message, but could also lose the party votes since it derailed some of the conditions that had seemingly blessed Democrats.

Instead of basking in the glory of the administration's blunders, Feingold is now putting members of his own party in a very difficult position. This is the the problem with the Democratic party - there's no continuity and no message control. Where does the Democratic Party, not Russ Feingold, stand? God only knows. Say what you want about the GOP, but, until recently, Republicans have been very good with getting their message out with a united voice.

While thismeasuree is clearly going nowhere, I will say this about Feingold - he's getting his name in the news. He's putting himself out there as the '08 candidate for liberals disheartened by Hillary's move to the middle. However, I would put 2006 ahead of 2008 on my list of priorities if I were a Congressional Democrat. Feingold's purpose here is transparently selfish. He has no regard for party loyalty or continuity and I'm sure he's gotten a number of phone calls telling him as much.

UPDATE (3/15/06 - 4:48PM): Hotline On Call has a great roundup of reaction to Feingold's censure measure. Here are some highlights:

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), known for his "near-daily" news conferences, "made history" by saying: "I'm not going to comment." At a time when Dems "had Bush on the ropes over Iraq, the budget and port security," Feingold "single-handedly turned the debate back to an issue where Bush had the advantage -- and drove another wedge through his party." [...]

A Dem aide: "[Feingold has] forced Democrats into the impossible position of trying to talk tough on the issue [of nat'l security] but voting against a stern censure. It was premature and basically about Feingold's ego. The rest of us pay the check his political capital can't cash" (Roll Call, 3/15). [...]

There is also a "long line of more senior" Dems who want to drag out Bush's agony for months. "Wiser" Dems understand that "political dis-utility of going after" Bush to stop him from doing the "wildly popular act of monitoring terrorist communications" (3/15). [...]

The censure resolution is receiving a "warm welcome" from the WH and the GOP, who have "seized" on the issue after "weeks of bad news" in Iraq, defeat on the UAE port deal, and "plummeting" approval ratings. Instead of attempting to block the resolution, Frist "sought a quick vote" on the issue, and VP Cheney, during a 3/13 WI fundraiser, used Feingold's measure "as a rallying point." [...]

In an email to supporters, RNC Chair Ken Mehlman writes, "after months of searching, Democrat leaders are finally beginning to find their agenda: take away the tools America needs to fight terror."

UPDATE II (3/15/06 - 6:03PM): I just found this post which Hugh Hewitt used the title "Feingold's Folly." This is a coincidence - my bad Hugh.

UPDATE III(3/15/06 - 8:34PM): Text of Feingold Resolution