By Stanley Rogouski, 3/17/06
Russ Feingold is a third term Senator from Wisconsin, a
Rhodes Scholar, and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Wisconsin
and Harvard Law School. He’s had a distinguished career in the Senate, leaning
towards the liberal side of the Democratic Party, but also writing important
bi-partisan legislation like McCain-Feingold with his Republican colleagues on
the other side of the aisle. He was a harsh critic of Bill Clinton and voted
for the confirmation of John Ashcroft and John Roberts.
Tony Perkins is a shadowy thug from David Duke Country. A
graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University and a former Louisiana state Representative, he has close ties
to white supremacist groups. In his Nation article, Max Blumenthal
recounts that Perkins, who was the campaign manager for Louis E. Jenkins in his
run for the Senate against Mary Landrieu was fined $3,000 for hiding $82,000
paid to Duke himself for his mailing lists. Perkins first came to national
attention during the Teri Schiavo circus in Florida when he was an organizer of
Justice Sunday I. He is currently the head of the Family Research Council, a
far right wing, anti-gay lobbying group.
Feingold was also the only Senator in 2001 to vote against
the quasi totalitarian Patriot Act, and act which, far from harming him
politically, led to his re-election to the Senate by a wide margin in 2004 and
to talk of his running for the Presidency in 2008. In the wake of the NSA
spying scandal, where President Bush very blatantly violated the Constitution,
dared Congress to try and stop him, and can be seen lying about it by anybody
with access to a broadband connection and a video archive site, Feingold
proposed a (rather mild) resolution to censure Bush, a slap on the wrist
designed to give the illusion that the Senate is trying to uphold the checks
and balances and to give Bush a way to put the incident behind him.
In a sane world, I’d be in the streets protesting Senator
Feingold for not going far enough. I’d be mad as hell at him for his votes for
Ashcroft and Roberts. I’d be pouring over his press releases and pointing out
his weasely attempts to avoid the issue of the Israeli Occupation of the West
Bank and Gaza, his use of the term “so-called occupied territories” and his
inability to think beyond the cynical Clinton “peace process”. I’d be highly critical of his support for “free trade” and his rather conservative take on economic and labor issues.
We don’t live in a sane world.
Shortly after Feingold put up his pallid little attempt to
paint over the gaping rust hole in the US constitution, the swift boating of
the third term Senator from the State of Wisconsin began. His colleagues on the
Democratic side of the aisle quickly abandoned him and blocked a vote on the
resolution. The press labeled him a “rogue Democrat” and speculated on why he
was harming the “war on terror” to further his political ambitions. Hate fests
on conservative blogs and websites like FreeRepublic called for the head of the “Islamofacist appeaser”. And, of course,
the Christian fascists jumped into the fracas with glee.
If you want to see just how far to the right we’ve gone as a
culture and just how closely the media is following the Bush/Rove script, take
a look at this editorial in the “Daily News” about Feingold’s censure
resolution.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/399472p-338462c.html
The writers argue that Feingold helped Bush dodge the
bullet, that the censure resolution distracted people from the Dubai Ports
issue and from Bush’s low poll numbers. But they offer no proof or even any
evidence that Bush’s poll numbers continue doing anything but circling the bowl
in a downward spiral. But what really struck me about the Daily News editorial
was one specific phrase. It sounded too much as though the writers were merely
reprinting a press release from the Republican Party.
“After Feingold made
his pitch on the Senate floor, Senate GOP leader Bill Frist of Tennessee called
his bluff and urged a vote.
“Fearing a backlash, Democrats instantly blocked the vote,
worried they would give back political gains made from Bush’s recent blunder on
the Dubai ports deal. They later tried to say they didn’t abandon
Feingold.”
And sure enough they were. Shortly after reading the article
in the Daily News, I got my (almost twice a day) press release from Perkins’s
group Family Research Council and Senator Feingold was on top. It’s worth
quoting it in its entirety:
Feingold: Crossing the Border?
“Sen. Russ Feingold
(D-WI) is perilously close to the border. I mean the border between loyal
opposition and treasonous conduct. He has allowed his political ambition to
drive him into ever more strident attacks on President Bush. Now, he has introduced
a censure resolution in the U.S. Senate condemning the President for what he
claims are violations of law in the National Security Agency surveillance
program. In World War II, such an action by a Republican senator would have
been viewed as treason plain and simple. FDR’s administration opened every
letter sent to or by 12 million members of our armed forces. Millions of
personal letters were microfilmed, censored, and only the redacted copies were
sent on. They were called V-Mail. If anyone then had said, “FDR spied
while GI’s died” he would have been put in a straightjacket. That
“V” stood for victory. Apparently, Sen. Feingold doesn’t care about
victory in America’s war on terror. Feingold is so far out that even his fellow
liberals have abandoned him. They ran like scalded donkeys, oops, I mean
scalded dogs when Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) boldly called their bluff. Frist said,
“OK, let’s vote on the Feingold resolution.” Feingold should be
careful. The only President ever censured by the Senate was that great Democrat
Andrew Jackson. Jackson’s supporters were so outraged that they came roaring
back, won the Senate, and then expunged the record.”
First look at the language. It’s identical to the language
of the Daily News editor, almost word for word, in fact.
“They ran like scalded donkeys, oops, I mean scalded dogs
when Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) boldly called their bluff.”
Now either Mortimer Zuckerman plays poker with Tony Perkins
(which I doubt) or both the Daily News and Family Research Council writers were
carelessly quoting the same Republican press release (likely).
Even more disturbing then the collusion of the so-called
liberal media with the Republican Party and the Christian Right is the
Totalitarian vision behind Mr. Perkins’ idea for America.
World War II kitsch is regularly used to justify any and every action of the US
government so it’s not surprising that someone would bring up the censorship of
the letters of American military personnel during the Second World War as a
justification for the NSA’s spying on American citizens. We could, of course,
ask what’s next on the agenda. A segregated Army? The internment of all
citizens of Japanese descent? Packing the Supreme Court with extra judges to
imitate Roosevelt’s blatantly unconstitutional act in 1937 when he didn’t get
his way on his New Deal Projects. I thought “conservatives” were against that?
But it would be more instructive to note how Perkins is conflating American
military personnel during the Second World War with the entire population of America
in 2006.
Perkins believes that every American citizen should be
subject to having his or her mail read, e-mail sniffed and phone calls bugged
by the NSA. He believes that a distinguished third term Senator from the
midwestern heartland is mentally unbalanced for defending the checks and
balances of the US Constitution. He rants in a mass e-mail to his army of
Christian fascist followers about Democratic members of congress as “donkeys”
and “scalded dogs”.
Shadowy extremists leaders attacking elected representatives
like this is a dangerous precedent. What’s more, it’s not what the framers of
the constitution had in mind when they deliberately set the executive and
administrative branches of government in opposition to each other to prevent
any one man from gaining too much power. What does Tony Perkins want? An “Enabling Act”?