While mainstream media outlets have pounced on the fact that Democrats blocked an effort by one of their own to censure President Bush over his warrantless wiretapping program, RAW STORY has found that Senate Democratic offices are fuming. The proposal to censure the President was introduced on a Sunday talk show by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI).
Though all say they believe the program warrants "more investigation," several Senate aides rebuked Feingold for proposing censure. They say that his move had the potential to derail Democratic efforts to strengthen the party's image on homeland security issues, noting that a large part of the country believes the eavesdropping program should continue. Bush has defended the program, calling it a "terrorist surveillance" program, and has used aides to defend its legality.
Strikingly, some of the criticism came from liberal Senate offices.
One longtime Senate aide was particularly scathing.
“Feingold’s grandstanding screwed the pooch and played into Bill Frist’s hands," the aide said. "Thank God Dems punted this down the field. Frist was going to force Democrats to vote on a resolution Feingold had kept a big secret and he would’ve split the caucus on an issue that needed time to get the whole caucus to support. Russ Feingold had only one persons’ interests in mind with his Sunday bombshell, and those were his own. He practically handed a victory to a Bush White House that desperately needs a win.”
Feingold, defending his censure plan today on Fox News, said: “I’m amazed at Democrats, cowering with this president’s numbers so low. The administration just has to raise the specter of the war and the Democrats run and hide…too many Democrats are going to do the same thing they did in 2000 and 2004. In the face of this, they’ll say we’d better just focus on domestic issues…[Democrats shouldn’t] cower to the argument, that whatever you do, if you question administration, you’re helping the terrorists.”
And this:
Several aides said their offices were stressing “more investigations” as an alternative to censure. One aide said public hearings would be better in bringing Americans around to the idea that Bush had done something wrong.
I think its clear that Democrats have come out of this looking weak -- not because of what Feingold did, but because his colleagues remain too timid, and too afraid of the White House, to challenge even the blatant ignoring of the law.
Meanwhile, moderate Republicans, including my favorite GOPer, Chuck Hagel, are trying to hammer out ao compromisethat would throw a cloak of legality over Bush's spying efforts, after the fact.
Do Democrats have any spine at all?
More goins on:
MyDD has the latest accusations of "treason" leveled at Feingold by Wayne Allard of Colorado... plus this update on a possible Allard retraction?
This MyDD diarist isn't alone in wondering when there will be censure polls... and the Mystery Pollster has some wisdom from the vault of Bill Clinton...
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
