Feingold Sets Three Hour Deadline for Withdrawal

Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold likes deadlines and timetables.

He has been a very vocal advocate for a deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

First, he set December 31, 2006 as the magic date. Then, he joined with John Kerry in proposing a July 1, 2007 deadline. Senate proposals for troop withdrawal deadlines change from day to day. I'm not sure which deadline Feingold supports now.

Yesterday, Feingold released a statement announcing his support of a bill for a three hour deadline for withdrawal.

This bill isn't about troops or Iraq or war. It's about passengers on planes.

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Russ Feingold is standing up for the rights of airline passengers by cosponsoring the bipartisan Airline Passenger Bill of Rights Act, introduced by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). The bill would allow passengers to safely deplane if a plane sits on a runway for more than three hours. The bill also would mandate that food, water, and adequate restroom facilities are provided to passengers during a delay. The legislation was introduced following storms in February that left some airline passengers across the country stranded for up to 11 hours in some instances.

“Many of us have had air travel experiences we’d like to forget, but nobody should have to be stranded on a runway for hours on end,” Feingold said. “While we can’t do anything about the weather, we can make sure that airline passengers are not subjected to the terrible conditions we witnessed last month.”

Yes, Feingold believes that legislation is necessary to protect passengers from torture at the hands of the airline industry.

He and Boxer and Snowe (Oooh! Bipartisan!) are proposing three hours as the deadline.

Why three hours?

I think that's too long. That's too many hours to be held captive on a plane going nowhere.

These sort of arbitrary deadlines are always a problem.

Deplane, deploy, whatever.