...John McCain will breeze into the White House. I love Russ and understand that he is a wonderful progressive voice that at times stands all alone in the wilderness to battle the BushCo. crime family, but I wish he would wait until after the election to make those observations. They feed into the McCain Media's narrative.

Have we heard any Republicans praise Obama like that? I think not. Their whole strategy is to smear his character and make him appear to be a light weight.

Today's vote in the Senate approving FISA legislation was a huge blow to our country, our Constitution and our rule of law.  Twenty-six Democrats stayed true to democratic principles and voted against the bill, which grants immunity to telecommunication companies who betrayed the American people by illegally spying on our communications without warrants.

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One of the Democrats who voted correctly today was Senator Russ Feingold, who appeared on Wednesday's Countdown with Rachel Maddow. Feingold has long been a staunch advocate for following the Constitution, speaking out against President Bush's illegal wiretapping program and fighting and voting against the anti-American Patriot Act. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama voted for the FISA legislation, and while Feingold says there is hope that as president, Obama could change the unconstitutional aspects of the bill, it was still "the wrong vote."

Maddow: "It is heartening to hear your optimism on the prospect of Obama's presidency on this issue, but of course, his vote today led a lot of us who see this as a real abrogation of the fourth amendment to be very concerned."

Feingold:"Well, it was the wrong vote. Any Democrat that voted that way was not voting according to what people in the Democratic Party clearly want, but, you know, we'll pull together after the election, we'll lay the case out again."

Senator Feingold took to the Senate floor today and, with the help of Sen. Arlen Specter, challenged his colleagues to wrap their minds around what granting retroactive telecom immunity would mean for the rule of law, and wondered how they could be voting on such a thing when 70 members don't even have access to the evidence of alleged impropriety.

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"This is an amazingly inappropriate use of legislative interference, a push by this administration, and Senators should take a real hard look at whether they want to be associated with such an attack on the rule of law."

Glenn Greenwald has more:

Once passed by the Senate, the FISA bill will then immediately be sent by the Democratic Congress to an eagerly awaiting and immensely pleased President Bush, who will sign it into law, thereby putting a permanent and happy end to the scandal that began when -- in December, 2005 -- he was caught spying on the communications of American citizens in violation of the law. The only real remaining questions are (a) whether Bush will host Steny Hoyer and Jay Rockefeller at a festive, bipartisan White House signing ceremony to celebrate the evisceration of the Fourth Amendment and the rule of law, and (b) whether Bush, when he signs the bill into law, will append a signing statement decreeing that even its minimal restraints on presidential spying are invalid.

Extended version of Senator Feingold's remarks below the fold:

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Firedoglake: 

The FISA Cloture vote just passed. The Senate will now consider the motion to proceed with the bill, then they'll head to the bill itself (corrected procedural details, h/t and thanks to CBolt). Various motions will be put forward to strip immunity, odds are they will fail. Then a number of the 80 who voted to restrict debate will vote against FISA so they can say they were against the bill. However this was the real vote, and the rest is almost certainly nothing but kabuki for the rubes.

Obama and McCain were both absent, as was Clinton. Unimpressive, but unsurprising, though I suppose I'm disappointed by Clinton (Obama has made it clear he didn't intend to try and stop the bill.) Clinton and Obama will claim there was no point since it wasn't close. But, with their leadership, it might well have gone the other way.

Cenk Uygur and Ben Mankiewicz of The Young Turks interview Russ Feingold on how egregious all this FISA posturing is for Democratic values. 

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Senator Russ Feingold joined Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! Tuesday to speak out about the reprehensible FISA "compromise" brokered by House Leader Steny Hoyer. Feingold has always been the most articulate and outspoken voice on Constitutional liberties, and he sure didn't hold back.

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SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD: It's not even a fig leaf; it's a joke. It does not in any way prevent the ruling from that court, basically automatically, of immunity, because it just involves saying, "Look, they've got a piece of paper from the government." This is nothing but Democrats trying to pretend that they're doing something here. They are doing nothing. They're giving in. [Missouri Republican] Senator Kit Bond is basically giggling at the fact that the Republicans and the administration got essentially everything they want on this. It's sadly a great failure on the part of the Democratic majority that was elected in 2006 primarily to get us out of Iraq, but also significantly to protect the Constitution of the United States. This is not a proud moment.

Do you hear that, Democrats? The GOP is laughing at your craven weakness. Hell, your approval numbers are higher with Republicans than they are with the people who put you in power to supposedly protect their rights. Do what you were elected to do and filibuster this bill until the real intelligence gaps are closed and the telecoms are compelled to prove they didn't violate federal law by helping the most unpopular President in American history spy on us.

When, precisely, did it become unfashionable (even taboo) to stand strong on protecting core American values? Have we really allowed George Bush to fundamentally alter the character of our country? Be sure to tune into CSPAN-2 tomorrow to see whether or not there are any true leaders in the Democratic party willing to fight the good fight.

Once in a while, it’s hard to keep a good bill down — especially when it involves expanded benefits for the troops, during a war, in an election year.

The Senate has overwhelmingly passed a new GI bill and billions in new domestic spending as part of the $165 billion Iraq war funding bill pending before Congress.

The 75-22 vote marked a resounding victory for Senate Democrats as well as Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), who has battled to expand the educational benefits for soldiers who served in Iraq. The vote was the first critical hurdle in a three vote package on the Iraq war funding bill. The measure also included a 13 week extension of unemployment insurance, home heating assistance and other domestic spending add ons. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, which will top $200 billion with the extra spending. […]

What was most surprising was not that the domestic funding amendment and the GI bill won a majority of the Senate votes, but that half of the Senate’s 49 Republicans bucked President Bush and GOP presidential candidate John McCain to back the dramatically expanded GI bill. Many uncertain Republicans stood in the well of the Senate, taking their time to make a decision. Virtually every GOP senator who is politically vulnerable this year voted for the domestic spending, including Sens. John Sununu of New Hampshire and Roger Wicker of Mississippi.

It’s interesting how vulnerable Republicans suddenly start to notice the merit of Democratic legislation six months before Election Day, isn’t it?

In all 25 Senate Republicans broke ranks with Bush/McCain to support the measure, giving the bill a veto-proof majority. Even Lieberman voted for it. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spoke in favor of the bill and voted for it. McCain, who has repeatedly said he opposes the measure, decided to raise money in California and skipped the vote. All 22 “nay” votes were conservative Republicans.

h/t to the excellently named blog Nailing Jello to the Wall... 

h/t Heather for video

Wisconsin Democrat, Russ Feingold, spoke eloquently yesterday as he joined Senator Dodd's successful bid to stop the latest FISA legislation in the Senate that would have given retroactive immunity to telecom companies who betrayed the American people by spying on us without warrants. Below are excerpts of his post at TPM Cafe. Senator Feingold has always been a huge supporter of protecting our civil liberties and deserves our thanks for fighting for us all. Drop him a line and let him know you appreciate it.

Via TPM Cafe:

As you all know by now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid decided last night to pull the deeply flawed Intelligence Committee FISA bill from the floor. He announced that we would return to the bill in January. Senator Chris Dodd did a great job controlling the floor for much of yesterday, insisting on full debate of the motion to proceed after cloture was invoked. We made it clear that we will do everything we can to stop this bad bill from being jammed through. Other Senators, including Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, Ron Wyden, Sherrod Brown, and Ben Cardin, eloquently laid out many of the problems with this bill. And even Senators who supported the bill in the Intelligence Committee, such as Sheldon Whitehouse and Dianne Feinstein, made valuable contributions to the debate.

The grassroots involvement on this issue has been nothing short of amazing. I was pleased to be part of yesterday's success, but we have earned only a temporary respite. We must not squander the extra time we've been given. We must keep the pressure on and fight back against the administration's fear-mongering. The Senate made a mistake when it failed to protect the rights and freedoms of the American people in the Patriot Act in 2001 and again during the reauthorization of that law two years ago. It compounded those mistakes many times over in the so-called Protect America Act. It is time to stop giving in to an administration that does not respect the rule of law. Read on...

The Chicago Tribune published Joke Line's infamous column last week for which Glenn Greenwald so deservedly ripped him. And now, they're giving Sen. Russ Feingold a chance to respond to him:

Joe Klein criticizes the Democrats on Iraq, even though we are acting on the demands of the American people that we bring the Iraq war to a close ("What others are saying," Editorial, Nov. 28).

And Klein calls the Democrats' position on reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act "well beyond stupid" but without getting his facts straight. Read on...

This is the kind of pushback the Democrats in office must do every time the "liberal" media tries to smear them with dishonest reporting. Joke Line, you are pwned.

Will somebody please wake Dianne Feinstein up...Here's Feingold's statement:

I will vote against the nomination of Judge Mukasey to be the next Attorney General.  This was a difficult decision, as Judge Mukasey has many impressive qualities.  He is intelligent and experienced and appears to understand the need to depoliticize the Department of Justice and restore its credibility and reputation. 

At this point in our history, however, the country also needs an Attorney General who will tell the President that he cannot ignore the laws passed by Congress.  Unfortunately, Judge Mukasey was unwilling to reject the extreme and dangerous theories of executive power that this administration has put forward. 

The nation's top law enforcement officer must be able to stand up to a chief executive who thinks he is above the law.  The rule of law is too important to our country's history and to its future to compromise on that bedrock principle.

Ha. H/t Mixter's Mix:

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Sen. Russ Feingold appeared on Fox News Sunday and as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was asked by Chris Wallace whether this whole drawn out mess of 8 months and 8500 pages isn't just some political theater...

WALLACE: But you know, I think the question is, is this really going anywhere? Is this substantive oversight or is this political theater?

I mean, the point is on the U.S. attorneys which we're talking about, six-month, seven-month investigation, 8,500 pages of documents, 14 witnesses, and you say yourself as a member of Senate Judiciary you haven't found any hard evidence that the White House has broken the law.

FEINGOLD: Well, I happen to think they probably did break the law here, but I don't think the investigation is over, and...

WALLACE: But do you have any evidence of that?

FEINGOLD: ... until we -- well, that's why we're asking for people like Karl Rove and others to come down and testify so we can actually examine the evidence.

We haven't had access to the evidence. How are you supposed to examine it when you can't look at it?

THIS is political theater? What was the Whitewater investigation? You know, the one that FOXNews cheerleaded through that took six YEARS (not months, Chris), cost $64 million dollars, expanded from one discrete issue to an overarching "truth commission" that could still only nail President Clinton for lying about an extra-marital affair?

Ah, the bliss of rabid partisanship....it means your memory never need be longer than what suits your cause.

Russ Feingold went on The Young Turks today to talk to Ben and Cenk about his censure resolutions and chided Senate Democrats for their inaction:

CENK: Senator Hillary Clinton has called President Bush one of the worst Presidents in history. Senator Harry Reid, the Majority Leader, has as well. If you don't take action against the worst President in history, how will history judge Senate Democrats?

FEINGOLD: I would think harshly, and I think the senators need to re-evaluate what they're saying. How can you make that statement and do nothing? You're just supposed to say, "Okay, good, he's going to be gone in a few months"? That's not the job of governance. And we are trying to reverse his policies, but when they completely ignore the results of the election. We have got to reflect as a Congress this outrage and the outrage of the American people...

You can watch the longer interview here (.wmv)

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) spoke with Tim Russert on this morning's "Meet The Press" and stated he plans to introduce a resolution to censure President Bush in a few days. When asked if the Senate Democratic leadership is supporting him, Feingold only went so far as to say that he has spoken with them and that they are working with him to put the resolution together.

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Timmeh uses his best straw man argument to give the appearance that this will just be seen a politics, but Senator Feingold reminds him that a censure resolution is actually a rather tame move to make, considering a growing number of Americans want to see the president impeached. Contact your Senators and ask them to support this resolution. A censure doesn't go far enough, but it's a start...

  DailyKos:

With Senate Democrats increasingly united, it looks as if for the first time, a majority of the Senate will support binding legislation with a firm end date for our open-ended military presence in Iraq, something I first called for, with support and input from so many of you, back in August of 2005.

This would be a watershed moment but we all agree that it has taken far too long to get here. The binding language in Levin-Reed makes this amendment significant and I will support it. But there are aspects of the amendment that are cause for concern - in particular, the exception for "providing logistical support" to Iraqi troops could give the administration too much wiggle room to "repackage" its failed military mission instead of redeploying our troops.