Feingold Democrats

In a few instances this past week, Russ Feingold has shown that he understands the shifting political winds in this country and he has internalized that the best way for a opposition party to conduct itself is to oppose and not capitulate.

You can hear Feingold make this comment:

Democratic U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold knocked the centrist Democratic Leadership Council today, saying its strategy of hoping to win by being “a little different than Republicans” hasn’t worked. He also accused the group's adherents of instilling fear in Democrats who oppose the war.

“They are the ones that coalesced with the big corporations to pass unfair trade agreements that hurt America,” Feingold said. “It was the DLC that came up with the health care plan with the Clintons that was so complicated nobody could understand it. It’s the DLC that has cut off our ability to say things like, ‘Let’s get out of Iraq because it’s a bad idea.’”

Feingold said DLC consultants “instill fear in Democrats” by saying opposition to the war would be taken as not supporting the troops. “What I want is us to get the right answer whether it’s liberal, conservative or middle of the road,” Feingold said.

Democrats should not try to be just “a little different than the Republicans and hope that we win," Feingold said. "I think that’s what (the DLC) brought us and it hasn’t worked.”

And you can see Feingold make this comment on ABC:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Lieberman thinks that your approach will strengthen the terrorists and it’s a victory for terrorists. What’s your response?

FEINGOLD: Well, I like Joe Lieberman, but I support Ned Lamont, because Joe is showing with that regrettable statement that he doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get it. The fact is that we were attacked on 9/11 by Al Qaeda and its affiliates and its sympathizers, not by Saddam Hussein. And unfortunately Senator Lieberman has supported the Bush Administration’s disastrous strategic approach of getting us stuck in Iraq instead of focusing on those who attacked us. I mean, look at the places that have been attacked: India, Morocco, Turkey, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Somalia, Spain, Great Britain. What does this have to do with Iraq? And Senator Lieberman is stuck on that point. Ned Lamont and I believe that we should refocus on those who attacked us on 9/11 and not simply try to cover our tracks because this was such a very poor decision in terms of the overall battle against the terrorists who attacked us.

The Republicans will continue to smear and demonize, but Feingold Democrats will win because they simply make sense. The current administration has shown that they cannot lead, and that they've made the wrong decisions in fighting terror and keeping America safe. Feingold Democrats are committed to a sensible foreign policy that actually confronts our enemies and uses all tools under the law to fight terror (the way the British did to disrupt this weeks terror plot).

Meanwhile, the so-called "adults" on national security in the White House are cutting funding for exactly the type of bomb-detecting equipment that would have been used in the terror plot foiled last week. They aren't serious about fighting the war on terror; they're only serious about talking about it.