California Conservative

As I first noted here, Democrats ran from voting on Russ Feingold’s censure resolution like it was the plague. This morning, the Washington Times is doing additional reporting on Feingold’s stunt.

Majority Leader Bill Frist dismissed the proposal as “political gamesmanship” and said that if the Senate was going to consider such a serious sanction, he wanted an immediate vote on the matter, which the Democrats would not permit. “This is a political stunt, a political stunt that is addressed at attacking the president of the United States of America when we’re at war,” Mr. Frist said. “The president is leading us with a program that is lawful, that is constitutional, that is vital to the safety and security of the American people.”
Democrats quickly rejected voting on the censure resolution, accusing Mr. Frist of trying to ram it through before senators would have time to consider it. “I don’t introduce a censure resolution lightly,” Mr. Feingold said later. “I’m shocked that the majority leader would show such disregard for such a serious matter by trying to hold a vote ten minutes after it was introduced.” No Democrats yesterday publicly supported Mr. Feingold’s resolution, although several said they hoped it would spark a worthwhile debate about the National Security Agency program. At a press conference, Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada declined to endorse the resolution and said he hadn’t read it.

Last week, I said that politicians of both parties acted out of political cowardice. This week, that cowardice is squarely located on Democrats’ shoulders. This cowardice is evidenced by Mr. Feingold’s heading for the hills before debate could begin on his gimmick resolution. One other thing: Don’t be surprised to find out a couple weeks from now that Reid knew the content and language of Feingold’s resolution.

Notice the false bravado in Feingold’s saying “I don’t introduce a censure resolution lightly,” Mr. Feingold said later. “I’m shocked that the majority leader would show such disregard for such a serious matter by trying to hold a vote ten minutes after it was introduced.” Sen. Feingold, are we to take that as meaning that you’re ok with voting on this resolution after a healthy debate on it? I’d bet that Sen. Frist would gladly give you ample time to debate it.

“This is one of the most blatant attempts in American history by a president to violate the law, to boast about the fact that he violated the law, to continue to violate the law and to mock anyone who questions it,” Mr. Feingold said.

Think about that statement because it’s breathtaking in its arrogance. Implicit in this statement is Feingold’s belief that the NSA intercept program is illegal. Notice that Feingold doesn’t cite court precedent supporting his opinion. Absent precedents supporting his opinion, Feingold’s essentially become judge, jury and executioner. Your resolution, Sen. Feingold, is “one of the most blatant attempts in American history” by a senator to position himself for a presidential bid.

The reality is that Democrats are afraid that this resolution was ever drafted. The few sane Senate Democrats left are distancing themselves from this. They’re backpedalling as fast as Deion Sanders covering Jerry Rice. (In their prime.) And they’re doing that because they’re afraid that they’ll get tagged with being far left extremists.

Cross-post at LetFreedomRing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006 at 10:28 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Homeland Security, Liberals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.