Russ Feingold Poised to Seek Senate Seat in 2016

Submitted by Cordelia Lear on Fri, 02/20/2015 - 7:02pm

It’s another impossibly cold day in Michigan at the Lear house as the temperature has been below zero for most of the last several days. However, my heart is a little happier and warmer now. Both Huffington Post and Salon are reporting that Russ Feingold is poised to run in 2016 for the Wisconsin Senate seat he held for 18 years. He would face millionaire businessman and ultra-conservative Ron Johnson who defeated him in 2010.

For Democratic progressives, a Feingold win would be an especially sweet victory. A tribune of the party’s liberal wing during his three terms in the Senate, Feingold voted with only 13 other senators against the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act; cast the sole Senate vote against the Patriot Act; co-authored the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance law (since gutted by the Supreme Court); and opposed the 2002 resolution authorizing the Iraq War.

I don’t know if the Democratic party mandarins are supportive since Feingold has always marched to his own tune, and he also has a reputation for listening to constituents. While he was a Senator he was famous for holding a “listening session” in every county every year where he would sit there and literally listen to constituents and take information about their problems and opinions. (Imagine that!)

For the last several years he’s been a State Department special envoy to the Great Lakes region in Africa and is preparing to leave his post soon.

I hope he’s still the same Russ Feingold and I hope he does run.

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Submitted by Unabashed Liberal on Sat, 02/21/2015 - 2:52am
Unabashed Liberal's picture

regarding deficit reduction?

BTW, I've contributed to him in the past, although it's been a decade or longer. He was always one of my favorite Democrats.

OTOH, having heard him on C-Span several times, I've been under the impression that Feingold is a deficit hawk.

So, I Googled.

Mention of his economic views are sorta spotty, but he's been commended by Pete Peterson's Concord Coalition and other organizations, for being a fiscal hawk.

Here's a piece by Deborah White, Liberal Politics Expert At "AboutNews, "Profile of Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Courageous Progressive."

Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin was elected to the US Senate in 1992 in a surprise victory over the Republican incumbent. He was reelected in 1998 and 2004. Sen. Feingold was defeated in his 2010 reelection bid by a Tea Party Republican candidate.

Sen. Feingold is an independent progressive thinker who votes the courage of his strong convictions. In 2005, he was the first senator to call for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. On March 13, 2006 and again on July 22, 2007, Sen. Feingold boldly called for Congressional censure of President Bush.

Major Areas of Interest :

Senator Feingold's strongest legislative passions are reserved for fiscal ethics in government, elimination of deficit spending, education, civil rights, protecting American jobs and affordable healthcare for all Americans.

The Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group for fiscal responsibility, has awarded him its highest rating each year since 1997 for his deficit reduction work. Taxpayers for Common Sense has repeatedly honored the Senator for his efforts to cut wasteful spending.

Bottom line, if former Senator Feingold denounces the 'deficit-cutting' agenda, I would love to support him for POTUS.

I am beginning to believe that FSC might implode soon, partly because of WJC's questionable dealings.
Just today we heard on XM, in an interview with TN Governor Haslam, that Bush and WJC met with a bunch of foreign bankers/investors yesterday--in spite of all that's been written about them for at least a week!

Whew!

Anyhoo, I believe that they are so arrogant that this scandal could finally be the one to bring them down. If it does, I would love for Feingold to step forward--so long as he denounces a deficit-cutting agenda (and any cuts to so-called 'entitlements').

I'll try to tie some of this together in the next week or two, with news pieces.

It's sorta like they were saying on Bloomberg TV-- and they LOVE FSC and Jeb--it doesn't always matter if something is legal or illegal--It's Appearances, Stupid!

Wink

Ad there are many moral questions which whirl around these activities.

If Anyone has any references to the various investment/banking schemes that seem to be under scrutiny, please share with us.

Thanks.

[Postscript: Hey--we may get a primary fight, after all!]

Mollie

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Submitted by Unabashed Liberal on Sat, 02/21/2015 - 4:03am
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Hopefully, we can glean something from them regarding his views on budget/deficit cutting.

Although I"ll probably comment in Al's "Lowe's" diary, tomorrow, unless the spray paint 'crackdown' is about chemicals being snorted, or some such, that sounds pretty ridiculous to me.

Have a good one, folks!

Mollie

P.S. Decided to post a couple of links that I've just found.

Certainly, the cutting of corporate welfare is fine with me.

Haven't had time to read everything, or watch the entire first Senate Debate, but here's a couple of links, including one to the first Feingold/Johnson Debate. Hope it gives us a picture of what and where he would cut. At a glance, it looks like a better approach than Bowles-Simpson, but as they say: "The Devil is always in the details."

I'm not a fan of the "Line Item Veto," though.

C-Span Video: Senatorial Debate #1

http://www.c-span.org/video/?295903-1/wisconsin-senate-debate

Feingold Touts Ways to Cut Wasteful Government Spending

http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-state.php?Id=160&yr=2010

Line-item veto bill renewed

Feingold-Ryan measure would let president jettison some spending, with Congress' OK

By Greg Borowski of the Journal Sentinel
April 24, 2007

Offering a bipartisan critique of a system that encourages bills to be filled with pork, Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. Paul Ryan unveiled a line-item veto proposal Monday.

The measure would allow the president to strike spending items attached to broader bills, but would send those items back to Congress before any of the vetoes would stand.

That would force Congress to act separately on the earmarks, which spend money on pet projects of local interest.

The proposal is also aimed at avoiding the constitutional problems that led to an earlier line-item veto measure being struck down in 1998 by the U.S. Supreme Court. That proposal did not require the congressional OK to strike items.

The measure is to be introduced this week in the Senate and House.

"I think the pressure on this is increasing," Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin, said in an interview. "I hear, and I know Representative Ryan hears, an enormous amount of complaints about the monkey business that goes on."

Ryan, a Republican from Janesville, sponsored a broader line-item veto proposal that passed the House in the past session. In addition to adding a bipartisan element with Feingold's sponsorship, the new plan narrows the areas in which it can be used - only the add-on earmarks, not all parts of spending bills. . . .

http://www.jsonline.com/news/president/29441244.html

Frankly, with so much having happened regarding 'deficit reduction,' I'm not going to waste too much time checking out past legislation, etc.

I do plan to watch all the Senatorial Debates, however.

At least a good portion of the cuts, on the surface, appear to be ones that end corporate welfare, although one article did mention ending 'some' taxpayer subsidies, but then didn't go on to tell "which ones."

Wink

Typical . . .

Mollie

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