An Exclusive Club

Only wackos Tom Harkin and Barbara Boxer dared to side with Feingold on his censure resolution. No other senators have joined that exclusive club.

Poor lonely Russ.

The editorial board of the New York Times feels his pain.

In the March 17 lead editorial, "Time for Facts, Not Resolutions," Feingold gets sympathy but not support.

We understand the frustration that led Senator Russell Feingold to introduce a measure that would censure President Bush for authorizing warrantless spying on Americans. It's galling to watch from the outside as the Republicans and most Democrats refuse time and again to hold Mr. Bush accountable for the lawlessness and incompetence of his administration. Actually sitting among that cowardly crew must be maddening.

Lawlessness. Incompetence. Gee, that sounds like the modus operandi of the Times.

Obviously, the board can relate to Feingold's feelings of impotence, and they condemn the cowardice of his colleagues; but that's little consolation.
Still, the censure proposal is a bad idea. Members of Congress don't need to take extraordinary measures like that now. They need to fulfill their sworn duty to investigate the executive branch's misdeeds and failings. Talk about censure will only distract the public from the failure of their elected representatives to earn their paychecks.

We'd be applauding Mr. Feingold if he'd proposed creating a bipartisan panel to determine whether the domestic spying operation that Mr. Bush has acknowledged violates the 1978 surveillance law, as it certainly seems to do. The Senate should also force the disclosure of any other spying Mr. Bush is conducting outside the law. (Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has strongly hinted that is happening.)

These libs are nuts.

If they believe that the Bush Administration is engaging in illegal activities and spying on Americans at will, then why would censure of the President, though not constitutionally an option, be considered an "extraordinary measure"?

The board gives the lame excuse that censure is a distraction. I think what the board is actually doing is try to provide an out for the overwhelming numbers of Dem senators that are running from Feingold's resolution.
The Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees should do this, but we can't expect a real effort from Senator Pat Roberts, the Intelligence Committee chairman, or Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. They're too busy trying to give legal cover to the president's trampling on the law and the Constitution.

Once again, we're back to the "Bush acts like he's above the law" mantra. Blah, blah, blah.
When the Republicans try to block an investigation, as they surely will, Senator Harry Reid, the minority leader, should not be afraid to highlight that fact by shutting down the Senate's public business, as he did last year. This time, though, Mr. Reid needs to follow up. The first time Mr. Reid forced the Senate into a closed session, Mr. Roberts said he would keep his promise about an investigation into the hyping of intelligence on Iraq. But Mr. Roberts continues to sit on that report.

Yeah, that's a great idea -- call for Reid to shut down the Senate. Right. A vote on a censure resolution is too much of a distraction, but shutting down the Senate completely is an appropriate measure. Sure it is.

The nation needs to know a great deal more about the domestic spying. How many people's calls and e-mail were tapped? How were they chosen? Was Mr. Bush planning to do this until the war on terror ended — that is, forever? The public should be asking why members of Congress are afraid to make those important and legitimate queries.

This paragraph is shockingly stupid. Did the Times board lift this from an Al Franken monologue?
With so much still unknown about the domestic spying, the censure resolution merely allows the Republicans to change the subject to fairy tales about Democratic leaders' trying to impeach Mr. Bush. They are also painting criticism of Mr. Bush as unpatriotic. That's tedious nonsense, but watching Mr. Feingold's Democratic colleagues run for cover shows how effective it is.

HEY! Geniuses! Step out of your elist lib bubble!

Repeating this garbage about Republicans making up "fairy tales about Democratic leaders' trying to impeach Mr. Bush" will not alter the reality of what the Dems are actually doing.

Explain H. RES. 365.

Is that a fairy tale? Yes, I know it's hard to believe; but it's not a fairy tale.

Regarding questions of patriotism, let's put those aside. Instead, let's focus on the irresponsible behavior of the Dems and their mouthpieces in the media. Day in and day out they mercilessly and groundlessly attack the President and the Administration.

Feingold spent twenty-five minutes on the floor of the Senate calling Bush a criminal.

Do these patriots think they are talking in a vacuum?

Their words and actions are heard around the world. Our enemies are listening. Our troops, bravely serving and sacrificing in Iraq and Afghanistan, are listening. Their loved ones here at home are subjected to the rants of these patriots.

I think these very patriotic Americans, the ones seeking to censure or impeach or otherwise assault the Commander-in-Chief, need to evaluate the likely consequences of their selfish, politically-motivated antics BEFORE they follow through on their "missions of patriotism" by staging news conferences, issuing press releases, and scheduling TV appearances.