Feingold's Future

Monday afternoon, the Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Rick Graber released the following statement:

RPW Chair Rick Graber Statement on Political Grandstanding by Russ Feingold

"Russ Feingold's grandstanding is pushing him farther and farther out of the mainstream of Wisconsin's politics. His calculated decision to put his stalled political career ahead of the safety of the American people should be disturbing to liberals, moderates and conservatives.

His latest stunt over terrorist surveillance would be laughable if it didn't comfort and strengthen our enemies. This is a politician that wrote a law to allow him to secretly tap the pocketbooks of his liberal friends in Hollywood without being detected by campaign laws. Now he suddenly is concerned about wire taps that secretly track phone calls made to terrorists?

After his stinging defeat over the Patriot Act, Russ Feingold is looking for new ways to appeal to the fringes of his party. It's unfortunate that Russ Feingold is more concerned about protecting the rights of foreign terrorists than he is about protecting the rights of Americans.

Russ Feingold lost badly on his attempts to kill the Patriot Act. He will lose again on his stunt to grandstand over a program that protects America from terrorists."

Naturally, the RPW would come out against Feingold. If the state's Democratic Party condemned the Senator's actions, that would be much more dramatic. Nonetheless, this statement is significant in that it points out how extreme Feingold has become, something that I think will resonate with Wisconsin voters.

Wisconsin has a few solidly liberal counties that would be receptive to Feingold's grandstanding, but I think his recent moves will alienate him from many of his supporters in the state.

Outside of the liberal hotbeds, Milwaukee and Dane County, I can't believe that Feingold's high profile attack on the President is going to play well.

In 2004, Kerry won the state by a razor's edge. Bush received 1,477,122 votes (49.36%), while Kerry landed 1,488,935 votes (49.76%). That is incredibly close, especially if you factor in the voter fraud, assorted screw-ups, tires slashed on vans intended to help Republicans get to the polls, and other crimes and irregularities.

The Senate race wasn't nearly as close. Feingold won with 55.36% of the vote. Obviously, significant numbers of Wisconsinites voted for Bush and Feingold.

Weird, huh?

I think Feingold's very visible move to the hard Left will impact his ability to win over the more moderate voters in his next Senate race. (Of course, I'm assuming that he's not moving up to higher office.)

Feingold has always been extreme, but I don't think Wisconsin voters realized it. Some of his support has been very superficial.

Nice guy Feingold ran some nice guy TV spots and people voted for the nice guy image. But now that the smiling guy in the flannel shirt has decided to flaunt his far Left status, I think voters will be inclined to look much more closely at the real Russ Feingold.

Who knows what the next four years will bring?

It's impossible to predict the long term political fallout from Feingold's censure stunt and his dance in the daylight with the MoveOn, Michael Moore type of Dems.

I think he could be gambling with his political future by openly courting the rabid Left.

One thing is certain. The Senate is not going to censure President Bush. That's a given.

What's uncertain is the political price that Feingold will pay for his lame resolution.