For years, we've all been clamoring for progressive leadership. At a very minimum, we wanted liberals to cast aside their self-loathing and join the battle.
For a while now, we've seen a few heroes emerge. First, Howard Dean stood up and loudly proclaimed his belief that the emperor lacked clothes. Most recently, Alan Grayson has shown the courage of our convictions, even to the point of telling Dick Cheney to STFU.
Of course, for all that time, there was Russ Feingold, voting against the PATRIOT Act, war in Iraq, confirmation of shitty judges and all the rest. And two days ago, I found out he does the little things that never show up on your TV.
I got wind of a republican/Chamber of Commerce press conference and decided to cover it for StarkReports. (aside: I had some interesting questions for the Chamber's EVP of Gov. Affair, Bruce Josten). The presser was called to ask the Senate to kill the health care reform bill that's working its way through the process. Mitch McConnel, John Cornyn, Lamar Alexander and Chuck Grassley and Mr. Josten each took a turn blasting the bill. One of their overriding criticisms was that the bill didn't do enough to contain costs.
After the presser ended, I filtered out into the lobby area with the rest of the reporters. And there was Russ Feingold, available to give the progressive side of the story.
I can't be sure this wasn't a coincidence, but honestly, when it comes to politics, I'm not a big believer in accidents. Feingold knew that if there wasn't someone there to offer the progressive point of view, only god knows how many stories would be written pushing the Chamber's distorted claptrap. To me, as a progressive, that is exactly the kind of leadership and commitment I want from my progressive Senators and Representatives. It's not always about going on TV; the little things matter too.
If the story ended there, we could all go home smiling a little bit more broadly, knowing we had someone in the Senate that had our backs. But the story doesn't end there; it gets better.
I was able to ask a question of the Senator, and I chose to give him the opportunity to rebut the Chamber's central argument concerning cost containment.
Feingold took the question and knocked it out of the park:
For those that are YouTube challenged, he basically said that the Chamber was right about the lack of cost containment, and that is exactly why he is so concerned about anything that would weaken the bill's inclusion of a robust public option. I think we can all feel pretty safe that's not what the Chamber was looking for...
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But it probably is a good thing no one takes him seriously, eh?
At any rate whenever conservatives give press conferences, hit the TV talk show circuits, etc... I have wondered why the democrats are not out there rebutting their falsehoods and lies. Granted they have gotten better at it, but they still need to do it more often because a lot of democratic and independent voters who only hear one side buy into the republican's BS. And by the time the democrats do (if they do) counter it, it is generally too late -- the story has already become conventional wisdom.
Look at what happened in the healthcare debate over the summer. Thankfully the democrats jumped in before it was too late. Nevertheless they should have done so sooner IMHO.
Good for Russ. We need more like him in Washington.
Senator Feingold is a good and decent man, who shoots straight and doesn't talk in circles the way his peers do. He also has true American values, and not values espoused to the ignorant like some "faux" news organizations do. I would fight for this man. He truly does look out for all of us, and not just the big campaign contributors.
It is time to recruit Feingold to save the Democratic Party.
The same question goes for Dean.
Needless to say, Feingold's record is much more impressive, and it would translate into him being a better, more progressive president. He would no doubt be under pressure to "moderate," but he'd do a better job at resisting these malignant influences.
Just another example of the man's integrity. Russ Feingold is my hero.
or Dean / Feingold - 2012.
Either way.
Dean & Feingold are two of the best of the lot.
Why after all should the American taxpayers supply Washington with money to make all of us slaves to the corporations,if there is no "public" benefit? I am amazed at their gall. Healthcare Reform is so far from what they are passing off in this terrible bill. This will set up the insurance companies as rulers over our everyday life. Regulating us,not the companies. Hospitals,and Pharma will keep bleeding us. Why are they passing this bill> Power over us.