Matthew Rothschild at Progressive is crushed by Russ Feingold’s defeat. So am I. I always loved Feingold. But.
Now Feingold leaves with his dignity and his principles intact. I didn’t agree with Russ Feingold on everything. He was too much of a deficit hawk for me. And his reflexive defense of Israeli government policies toward the Palestinians was at odds with his otherwise stellar human rights record.
But he was a fantastic Senator.
You won’t find a smarter, more diligent, more independent, more courageous person in that chamber.
He was the reincarnation of Fighting Bob La Follette, but with shorter hair.
He was the only Senator to vote against the USA Patriot Act, and his speech against it could have come right out of La Follette’s mouth.
Said Feingold: “There is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch the terrorists. . . . But that wouldn’t be a country in which we would want to live, and it wouldn’t be a country for which we could, in good conscience, ask our young people to fight and die. In short, that country wouldn’t be America.”
Right; reflexive on Israel. And why?
