Redstate

By Moe Lane Posted in Democrats — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Let's get the executive summary out of the way for our hyperpartisan lurkers from the Other Side: your so-called 'leaders' are selling you out again - this time with regard to the Feingold censure - and we over here on the VRWC know it, and are laughing at you. Particularly since we know that, in the end, you'll have no choice but to let them get away with it. Just like all the other times.

For even starker, even wittily crude mockery, check out Jeff Goldstein. The rest? Read on.

Now that we've gotten the justified mockery out of the way, let's go to the articles that spawned it. First, the AP (all links via Sister Toldjah):

Democrats distanced themselves Monday from Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold's effort to censure President Bush over domestic spying, preventing a floor vote that could alienate swing voters.

A day of tough, election-year talk between Feingold and Vice President Dick Cheney ended with Senate leaders sending the matter to the Judiciary Committee.

"I look forward to a full hearing, debate and vote in committee on this important matter," Feingold said in a statement late Monday. "If the Committee fails to consider the resolution expeditiously, I will ask that there be a vote in the full Senate."

Republicans dared Democrats to vote for the proposal.

For those of us who haven't had our coffee yet,the above bit about the Judiciary Committee is what we in the punditry business call a 'weasel'. Why? Because the GOP's ready to vote right now:

WASHINGTON - A short, but sharp partisan skirmish broke out on the Senate floor Monday when Majority Leader Bill Frist tried to schedule a vote for Monday night or Tuesday on Wisconsin Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold’s resolution to censure President Bush.

Frist said Democratic senators ought to be on the record voting for or against the Feingold resolution.

“If the Democratic Party is going to be attacking the president in a time of war, then we are ready to vote and let’s see what the Democratic Party says,” Frist told reporters right after the floor skirmish.

It is fairly clear that the Democrats in Congress don't actually want a vote on this issue: the AP article quotes Sen. Durbin as doubting whether it'd actually happen - in the teeth of Frist's calling for an immediate vote. House Minority Leader Pelosi showed 'empathy' (translation: she's too spineless to support this in an election year). Senate Minority Leader Reid claimed not to have read it yet (translation: he's either equally spineless, or else such an incompetent that he walked into this situation unprepared. Or maybe Sen. Feingold was being mean to him). And (according to MSNBC) Sen. Lieberman probably won't vote for it, because, well, he doesn't smoke crack.

What makes this all especially entertaining is that it was so preventable. The leadership is in the position that it is now - trying to sail between Scylla and Charybdis, and failing miserably - because it decided to encourage its more enthusiastic members back in 2001 (with 'encourage' being defined as 'not stepping on them like bugs'). If they had done the aforementioned stepping, they wouldn't have to pretend to tolerate this nonsense from the Official Exciting Primary Candidate Who Will Get Slapped Around By The Grownup for 2008. For that matter, they might have nominated somebody who could have been allowed to win the 2004 election.

One last thought from the MSNBC article:

Feingold’s resolution does not fully satisfy the Bush adversaries — none of them serving in Congress — who are calling for Bush’s impeachment.

And there's a reason why none of those adversaries are serving in Congress. To say nothing of most of the candidates that they favor.