|
Feingold blasts war bill, but cuts Reid some slack |
|
By Elana Schor
|
|
Posted: 06/05/07 08:08 PM [ET] |
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) remains openly frustrated with the four-month battle over Iraq funding, condemning the process as a “retreat” and “utter collapse” that yielded no binding vote on his proposal to cut off most war money within a year. But Feingold refused to criticize one chief negotiator of the supplemental.
“I know that [Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)] wants to take stronger action,” Feingold said in an interview with The Hill just before the recess. “And I think he definitely wanted to keep the heat on. But at some point his members
simply wouldn’t come along.”
Feingold described an understanding on Iraq that is strong evidence of Reid’s skills at uniting the centrists and liberals within the Senate’s fragile Democratic majority. Reid endorsed Feingold’s Iraq withdrawal bill in April and helped round up votes for it, while the stalwart progressive stayed within the Democratic fold even on Iraq votes that Feingold might
have considered too weak.
That détente cracked on the supplemental. No Senate Democratic leader followed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) lead in opposing the war-funding bill, but Feingold pointed a finger at the rank and file.
“[Reid] is having a serious problem with members of his own caucus who simply are buying into these ridiculous arguments of [Vice President] Dick Cheney that somehow we’re trying to take funds away from the troops under Feingold-Reid,” Feingold said. “That’s absolutely false.”
Despite Feingold’s work to raise awareness of past war-money cutoffs that Republicans backed, even some Democratic leaders remain wary of playing into GOP hands by forcing a funding standoff with President Bush. Feingold’s best chance at bringing the war to a speedy end may come with the one campaign he won’t formally enter: the Democratic presidential primary.
Feingold appeared entirely at ease with his decision to forego a White House run. “Not that it wouldn’t be fun — it would,” he said. “But the whole thing it would involve, completely taking me away from my work here, [would be difficult].”
Few lawmakers are more beloved by the anti-war movement than Feingold, and the White House chatter that began weeks after the 2004 election still continues. Yet rather than “The Hillary Slayer,” as The New Republic once dubbed him, Feingold is evolving into a shadow rival of the entire Democratic field.
After Feingold won a test vote on his and Reid’s Iraq language, the four Senate Democrats gunning for the White House began an elaborate tussle over who among them would support him and the meaning of their votes. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) ran national TV spots trumpeting the first alliance with Feingold, calling the withdrawal measure “Feingold-Reid-Dodd.” And Feingold was thrilled.
“I think it’s terrific,” Feingold said of Dodd’s pressure campaign on the war vote. “We didn’t agree on whether we should [have gone] to war in the first place. But he’s showing real strength in helping moving the country, moving the presidential candidates in the direction of [quick withdrawal].”
Feingold lauded Dodd’s opponents as well, deeming Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) “celebrities in their own right” and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) “overqualified.” He pledged to support the eventual nominee, while leaving the door open for an early endorsement that would be a prize for any Democratic contender.
“There are certainly some people that I wouldn’t be comfortable endorsing; there are others I would,” Feingold said, declining to elaborate. “It has a lot to do with Iraq, but not exclusively.”
Feingold’s praise for another presidential hopeful might do more harm than good, he acknowledged. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has taken fire from foes and conservative activists, both for partnering with Feingold on the 2002 campaign-finance law that bears their names and for a perceived movement toward the GOP orthodoxy on contentious issues such as election reform and immigration.
But Feingold saw no change in McCain and defended their bill, which faces a crucial test in the Supreme Court that the Wisconsinite cannot address directly.
“I don’t know if John wants me to be the one defending it, because that’s a Democrat’s name on there,” Feingold said. “But he’s had the courage to stand up when he’s been attacked by [former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt] Romney (R) and others. … On this issue, and some others, he is far more consistent than some other Republicans who are refashioning themselves to appeal to the right of the party.”
McCain had equally warm words for Feingold, whom he often calls “the most honest man I’ve ever known.” While the two men are “night and day on the war,” McCain said, they have traveled together twice to the war-torn nation.
The duo’s likely next act, spending reform for tax-exempt 527 groups, has grown more tangled this year as 527s increasingly shift to 501(c) nonprofit status for their political activities. Feingold held off on vowing to tackle nonprofits during this year’s campaign-finance push, cautious of the constitutional implications.
“I do believe there are free speech rights that apply in some of these situations … I take each one as I see it,” Feingold said.
Forcing Bush’s hand on the war remains Feingold’s primary goal for this Congress, but that bitter rift has not dampened the Democrat’s desire to find common ground with the White House on other issues. As the subcommittee chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Africa panel, Feingold has led congressional action on the Darfur genocide in Sudan and the flaring conflict in Somalia.
The week before Bush announced new economic sanctions on Sudan, the administration had tipped off Feingold that the stronger medicine he sought for that violent regime finally would be coming. And Feingold applauded Bush’s call last week for $30 billion in extra AIDS-fighting money for Africa.
But Feingold’s kindest appraisal of Bush came on immigration, even as he refrains from backing the Senate bill in its current form.
“I think we’re all willing to put the Iraq thing as a different issue and work with this president to pass comprehensive immigration reform,” Feingold said. “He doesn’t want to just posture in some anti-immigrant mode. He wants to solve the problem.”
|
