Feingold’s Out
 Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) will take a pass on a presidential run in 2008. First elected in 1992 after beating two millionaire primary opponents, and then incumbent Sen. Bob Kasten (R-WI), Feingold is a favorite among progressives. He was the only member of the Senate to vote against the Orwellian PATRIOT Act, and one of 23 senators to vote against giving President Bush war powers in Iraq. He’s also one of five senators to endorse same-sex marriage. As a freshman, Feingold opposed the doomed Clinton health care plan, claiming it favored the insurance companies and offered little protection to the uninsured. He also voted against Bush’s Medicare Plan D scheme, and introduced a state-by-state system of universal health care last year.
A presidential bid would be a hard slog Feingold, who polls somewhere between fourth and ninth among likely Democratic presidential contenders. A whole-hearted candidacy would detract from his duties as a member of the new Democratic majority.
In March 2006, Feingold offered a resolution in the Senate to censure Bush for illegal wiretapping, but it’s held up in the Judiciary Committee by outgoing chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA). Only four others – Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) have indicated they would vote for the resolution if it makes it to the Senate floor.
Earlier this year, objecting to both the Federal Marriage Amendment and Specter’s decision to hold the committee vote behind closed doors, Feingold walked out in protest. As he left the room, Specter shouted,
"I don't need to be lectured by you. You are no more a protector of the Constitution than am I. If you want to leave, good riddance."
Now that the worm has turned, Feingold is too serious a legislator to engage in pay-back. He didn't take a rain check on a presidential run to play schoolyard games with the Republicans. Nevertheless, perhaps current ranking Judiciary Committee member and announced presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) – who, for the next 16 months will be trudging through Iowa cornfields, NH coffee klatches, and Nevada bingo games, when he’s not in Los Angeles and NYC raising money – should step aside and allow either Leahy or Feingold to assume the chairmanship. Then maybe that censure resolution will find its way to the floor for a vote.
At only 53 years of age, the Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Law School grad has a long career ahead of him. Maybe next time, Russ. 
~Jack McEnany
Also see: Vilsack, Into the Breech, Huckabee, Obama Breaks
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