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Move over, Hillary: Russ Feingold is going to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008. For far too long the assumption has been that the former First Lady would be the Dems’ obvious pick. The storyline had dynastic flair, plus the sexy-milestone first-woman-president aspect. It had the wronged-woman-coming-out-on-top Style-section and glossy headline opportunities. The idea launched many a Clinton-hater (hey, nothing wrong with that, I’m a card-carrier) book. It was scary while it lasted. But the moment’s gone. Enter Sen. Russell Feingold, three-term Democrat from Wisconsin. He’s positioned himself as the antiwar alternative. He’s got the advantage of being...

Move over, Hillary: Russ Feingold is going to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008. For far too long the assumption has been that the former first lady would be the Dems' obvious pick. The storyline had dynastic flair, plus the sexy-milestone first-woman-president aspect. It had the wronged-woman-coming-out-on-top Style-section and glossy-headline opportunities. The idea launched many a Clinton-hater (hey, nothing wrong with that, I'm a card-carrier) book. It was scary while it lasted. But the moment's gone. Enter Sen. Russell Feingold, three-term Democrat from Wisconsin. He's positioned himself as the antiwar alternative. He's got the advantage of being able...

Move over, Hillary: Russ Feingold is going to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008. For far too long the assumption has been that the former first lady would be the Dems' obvious pick. The storyline had dynastic flair, plus the sexy-milestone first-woman-president aspect. It had the wronged-woman-coming-out-on-top Style-section and glossy-headline opportunities. The idea launched many a Clinton-hater (hey, nothing wrong with that, I'm a card-carrier) book. It was scary while it lasted. But the moment's gone. He's positioned himself as the antiwar alternative. He's got the advantage of being able to say to anyone disillusioned about Iraq that...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- Despite Republican scandals, Democrats will not win back majorities in Congress by default, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold told New Hampshire Democrats on Saturday.Speaking at the state party's annual convention, Feingold, D-Wisconsin, rejected the idea that Democrats should just lay low and let Republicans self-destruct. "Some say 'we've got it made ... let's not rock the boat,'" he said, "but I believe that's exactly how we lost in 2002 and 2004. We won't win by default. We won't win by just running out the clock. We'll only win if we show we are willing to discuss tough...

(AP) MANCHESTER, N.H. Despite Republican scandals, Democrats will not win back majorities in Congress by default, U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold told New Hampshire Democrats on Saturday. Speaking at the state party's annual convention, Feingold, D-Wisconsin, rejected the idea that Democrats should just lay low and let Republicans self-destruct. "Some say 'we've got it made ... let's not rock the boat,"' he said, "but I believe that's exactly how we lost in 2002 and 2004. We won't win by default. We won't win by just running out the clock. We'll only win if we show we are willing to discuss tough...

JOHNSTON, IA (AP) -- Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold energized Democratic activists in Iowa Saturday, touting his "moderate, responsible" effort to censure President Bush and arguing that his brand of hard-hitting activism has been ratified at the polls. "My message and the way I've conducted myself in Washington was tested in Wisconsin in 2004," Feingold said, in an interview with The Associated Press. "I had three Republicans spend $11 million attacking me for having voted against the USA Patriot Act, voting against the Iraq war." In that campaign, Feingold said he met charges head-on without seeking middle ground on the sensitive...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Russ Feingold, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, said Monday he will travel to Iowa this week to hold fundraisers for Democratic congressional candidates and give a speech. Iowa's caucus is the first contest for presidential candidates.Feingold, D-Wis., plans to deliver a speech at the University of Iowa on Friday, when he will focus on his resolution to censure President Bush for the administration's eavesdropping program. Feingold then plans to hold a fundraiser for congressional candidate Dave Loebsack. On Saturday, after speaking at several congressional district conventions, he'll hold a fundraiser for congressional candidate Selden Spencer.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record)'s call for censuring President Bush appears to have paid dividends for the senator's political action committee. Feingold's leadership PAC, the Progressive Patriots Fund, pulled in $282,000 last month, according to a report filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. In February, the PAC raised $105,000. Feingold, D-Wis., announced in March that he introduce a resolution to censure Bush over the administration's eavesdropping program. "I bet that really did stimulate contributions a lot," said Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "The censure resolution, and lack of any...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Sen. Russ Feingold, a potential presidential candidate, said Tuesday he supports giving gays and lesbians the right to marry, again positioning himself to the left of possible 2008 rivals."Gay and lesbian people in our country are fighting a mean-spirited movement to harm them and to discriminate against them," Feingold, D-Wis., said in a telephone interview. "I stand with them against that movement, and I'm proud to stand with them."Feingold said he decided to express his support for gay marriage in response to a Wisconsin constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and civil unions, which will appear on...

While only two Democrats in the Senate have embraced Sen. Russ Feingold's call for censuring President Bush, the idea is increasing his standing among many Democratic voters as he ponders a bid for the party's presidential nomination in 2008. Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, insists his proposal has nothing to do with his political ambitions. (Valin: NOW STOP LAUGHING!) But he does challenge Democrats who argue it will help energize Republicans. "Those Democrats said that within two minutes of my announcing my idea," Feingold said in a telephone interview last week. "I don't see any serious evidence of that." A Newsweek...

Doesn't it strike you as ironic that one of the major architects of a legislative scheme that tramples all over the First Amendment had the gall to try to censure President Bush for the wireless surveillance of terrorists? At least with the Clinton impeachment, which many wanted to dilute to a censure and others to a mere verbal wrist-slap, there was no question that he committed multiple felonies. But now Sen. Russ Feingold demands that Bush be censured over a matter on which, to quote Al Gore, "there is no controlling legal authority," and which many believe is legal, proper,...

<p>Just when the Republicans looked like they were coming unhinged, the Democrats serve up a refresher course on why they can’t be trusted with the keys to the country.</p>

Doesn't it strike you as ironic that one of the major architects of a legislative scheme that tramples all over the First Amendment had the gall to try to censure President Bush for the wireless surveillance of terrorists? At least with the Clinton impeachment, which many wanted to dilute to a censure and others to a mere verbal wrist-slap, there was no question that he committed multiple felonies. But now Sen. Russ Feingold demands that Bush be censured over a matter on which, to quote Al Gore, "there is no controlling legal authority," and which many believe is legal, proper,...

Minnesota Sen. Mark Dayton Thursday strongly criticized fellow Democrat Russ Feingold's resolution to censure President Bush over domestic spying. "It's an overreaching step by someone who is grandstanding and running for president at the expense of his own party and his own country," Dayton said of Feingold, a Wisconsin senator and potential 2008 presidential candidate. "I think it's a very dangerous territory for the democracy that we have in this country to be playing around with those kinds of resolutions, without any consultations from his colleagues. I think it was irresponsible." Dayton is a member of Feingold's own party from...

Has Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) had enough talk of censure? After today’s stakeout with the Capitol Hill press corps you bet he has. The fearless Democrat leader was badgered by reporters about Sen. Russ Feingold’s (D.-Wis.) resolution to censure President Bush for his terrorist surveillance program. One question after another had to do with the censure resolution—something Reid clearly did not want to talk about. Finally, when the questions became so blunt and direct, Reid cut off reporters and scurried to safety. But immortalized in the history books will be how foolish he and his Democratic cohorts look...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Russell Feingold on Tuesday blamed fellow Democrats for inaction on his stalled resolution to censure President Bush for his authorizing the National Security Agency's electronic terrorist surveillance program. "I'm amazed at Democrats ... cowering with this president's numbers so low," said Feingold, D-Wis. "The administration ... just has to raise the specter of the War on Terror, and Democrats run and hide."

Feingold Draws Little Support for Censure By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 18 minutes ago Democrats distanced themselves Monday from Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold's effort to censure President Bush over domestic spying. The White House hit back at the same time, Vice President Dick Cheney telling a fundraiser in Feingold's home state that the resolution was an "outrageous proposition." As the crowd in De Pere, Wis., booed Feingold's effort, Cheney said, "Don't hold back." Feingold's fellow Democrats did just that Monday, with several saying they wanted first to see the Senate Intelligence Committee finish an investigation of the warrantless wiretapping...

Democrats sharpened their attack yesterday on President Bush's warrantless surveillance of Americans, with a liberal senator introducing a censure resolution and party leaders showing a willingness to debate the matter. Some party strategists, however, worried that voters will see the move as overreaching partisanship, and Republicans pounced, practically daring Democrats to vote for the measure. "The big question now," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), "is how many of his Democrat colleagues will follow him over the cliff?"

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist tore into his Senate colleague, Russ Feingold, on Sunday, saying the Wisconsin Democrat's plan to introduce a resolution of censure against President Bush in a time of war would give aid and comfort to America's enemies. "Russ is just wrong. He is flat wrong. He is dead wrong," Frist fumed on ABC's "This Week," minutes after Feingold announced his censure plan on the same show. The top Republican complained: "As I was listening to it, I was hoping deep inside that the leadership in Iran and other people who really have the U.S. not in...

Sen. Russ Feingold said Sunday that Congress needs to censure President Bush as a possible first step towards impeachment for authorizing the wiretapping of terrorists based in America, adding that Bush's alleged lawbreaking was "much more serious, clearly, than anything Bill Clinton ever did." "This conduct is right in the strike zone of the concept of high crimes and misdemeanors," Feingold told ABC's "This Week." "What the president did, by consciously and intentionally violating the Constitution and the laws of this country with this illegal wiretapping, has to be answered." Feingold announced that he will introduce on Monday a resolution...