Doing a passable Claude Rains impersonation, Russ Feingold has expressed shock that his fellow Democrats are “cowering” before Republicans.

“I’m amazed at Democrats ... cowering with this president’s numbers so low,” said Feingold yesterday. Yes, he’s shocked I tell you, to learn that Democratic timidity is taking place in his little establishment.

All this shock and cowering comes as a result of the Wisconsin senator and presidential candidate having introduced a censure resolution against POTUS for having committed the criminally and incredibly obvious, although, as the Associated Press reports, “not a single Democrat has embraced [the resolution].”

Why? Well, “they want to see the results of a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation before supporting any punitive legislation.”

As soon as you’re through laughing over that one….

Putting the politics in further perspective, the WP reports that ballsy “GOP leaders who had been reeling from the impact of Republican political scandals, an unpopular war and Bush’s mishandling of the port-security issue” -- and, by the way, the Harriet Meirs fiasco and the exploding deficit and twisted intelligence and a nightmarish Medicare program and … you get the point -- “sensed that Feingold overplayed his hand [emphasis added].”

I labeled “GOP leaders” as “ballsy” because the then-ensuing passage, of course, pretty much encapsulated Republican chutzpah. All those self-inflicted wounds from breathtaking malfeasance, yet the GOP still manages to play the ethical nanny -- and gets away with it.

“Many Democrats, while sympathetic to Feingold’s maneuver, appeared to be distancing themselves from his resolution yesterday, wary of polls showing that a majority of Americans side with the president on wiretapping tactics.”

And that, as you know, is the trouble with Democrats. They aren’t just now cowering in the face of Feingold’s gambit: they’ve been cowering for five years in the face of the ballsiest nonsensical government ever perpetrated on the American people. And they’ve done so with polls in hand rather than the truth in mind.

There is real doubt, at long last, whether Democrats ever will realize that public opinion is shaped by outspoken leadership, that ballsiness works, and that only wariness has kept them as second-class political citizens.

When asked Tuesday if he thought Feingold was “grandstanding for 2008,” Sen. Joe Biden answered: “No, I think it’s more of an intense frustration. Do any of you in the news media or any of us have any idea what the president is doing?”

Speaking of intense frustration, Joe, none of us has any idea what your party is doing, either, and all are fed up that it’s doing so damned little of it.

Comments

[Sir Loin of Beef]

(letter sent to DNC)

Dr. Dean,

Please note the bold action taken this week by Senator Russ Feingold, and then observe the outpouring of support from the progressive grassroots for his lonely but principled attention to law and procedure. Then look around yourself and see the crowd of equivocating cowards and ne’er-do-well opportunists that constitute the leadership of the Democratic party. We out here in the nation, we see them; and we deeply resent them.

Please - for the good of the country - immediately disassociate yourself from Hillary “Thou Shalt Burn no Flag” Clinton and Joe “Diamond” Biden and forcefully align yourself and the DNC with the likes of Senator Feingold, Representative Conyers, Representative Barbara Lee, and Al Gore. These people, and a bold few others, are not afraid to speak frankly; to identify criminality and oath-breaking; to denounce the unfettered access of powerful pirates to our nation’s wealth and well-being.

I like your recommendation for nation-wide attention to Democratic candidates at all levels of government - but I would feel even better about donating to the Democratic party if I could be assured that no DINO neocons or corporate collaborators would be benefitting one bit from my donation. In short, Senator Feingold can expect a donation from me, but the DNC can forget it as long as it coddles Republican moles and cynical political speculators.

[Met00]

I contacted BOTH my senators from CA and asked them if they forgot their oaths of office.

How dare they say that it is acceptable that the President of the United State violate a law the legislature wrote and continue to do so. No man is above the law. They swore to uphold the Constitution against any enemy foreign or domestic. Well we have a domestic enemy who is violating the law, and the IV Amendment. Either stand up and be counted, or get the heck out of office whene we can replace you with someone who does take their oath seriously.

[Jay Randal]

The Democrat Senators must be told to get a spine, meaning stand up and fight Bush, or resign and let real Dems take their places! Lieberman must resign or become a Republican > PERIOD.

[KEVIN SCHMIDT, STERLING VA]

Now can we compare the Bush/Cheney administration to 1930's Germany?

[Rick Kellis]

I've just written the senators who have gotten on board: Russ (of course), Boxer, Harken, Chafee. I suggest we all do the same.

Thank you for supporting Russ Feingold and the American Patriots who uphold the credo of the Founding Fathers [Patria] (as compared with the Bush Loyalists.)

And thank you,

Rick

[Tony]

There isn't much to brag about here in Wisconsin, but I can say that I am proud of Russell Feingold, and I have been placing phone calls to the office of the "other" gentleman from Wisconsin, Herb Kohl, to either get on board, or get out of the way.

Senator Feingold is a true American patriot, and God knows we can sure use more examples of what real patriotism looks like during these dark days of our democracy.

[Scream & Hollar]

The only way the bought-and-paid-for Dem's will listen is if we constantly remind them that service to the people is their mandate.

No spine, no job.

http://www.democrats.org/page/s/contact

Make your voice heard.

[Romelee]

I have e. mailed my Sent ators I`m getting tird of all the Dems not sticking together and Ia`m not alone.They need to get rid of Liberman and Nelson of Neb.voting for every thing Bush wonts.Stick with Fiengold even if he doesn`t have a chanch against Rep. Your not going to win not pushing back.

[blueneck]

Because fundraising for reelection is a neverending job, and because of the huge sums required, some Democrats have sold their souls to the same powers that bought and control the Republican Party. And because we do not know the scope and depth of the domestic NSA spying program, maybe the RNC and the Busheviks have "the goods" on many of the Democrats. I get the feeling that many of the Dems are holding back out of fear of blackmail. Taking a principled stand along side Sen. Feingold may unleash a scorched-earth reprisal. (I could only hope so. Sometimes an oozing sore can only be healed by cauterizing fire.)

[J.B Watts]

You libs are so funny...yet sad at the same time..to say al gore is a leader is soo damn funny. Gore, like your newest hero russy boy, is a joke.