Report from a Russ Feingold fundraiser

There are quite a few things to post later. But for now I can add to my list of interesting political figures I've met. My dad got invited to a Russ Feingold fundraiser this afternoon, and I thought it would be worth checking out. Indeed it was. The great anti-Patriot Act senator talked about why the heck he was raising money so soon after his re-election. Apparently the plan is to keep local political committees running, supporting other progressive and Democratic candidates. As this unusual guy somehow has lasted so long in the Senate, he's really becoming a Wisconsin institution, so why not try to leverage his long-term popularity by keeping the effort going?

Other than that, well, he talked about how irresponsible President Bush is for proposing funding Katrina recovery efforts with deficit spending and cutting services. He talked about Judge Roberts - and in particular, the connection between the Patriot Act, the Chief Justice, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (wikipedia). He said that the primary reason he voted against the Patriot Act was because of this shady secret court, whose members are in fact selected by the Chief Justice. So the Roberts thing is even more important. But he felt that Roberts was clearly not their first choice, so relatively not so bad. The next one, he feared, would take the rest of the year to sort out.

That's my dad at right - with the blue shirt and tallness, can you see the resemblance?! ... I wasn't taking any notes, so I can't really get into lots of details. But he also talked about how the Katrina situation has helped illustrate to Americans that the Iraq war has really damaged our preparedness. But he was disappointed that now that Katrina is at the top of the agenda, the vast amount of unrest about the war that members of Congress have been exposed to on their summer break has sort of gotten pushed aside. In particular, he felt, the Republicans have succeeded in making it "taboo" to challenge Bush's leadership on the war and to even suggest that it is time to discuss getting out. He was the first to offer an actual target date for a pullout - the end of 2006. But the other Democrats are too tepid to even support him, or openly start discussing the matter of deadlines because Republicans have made it appear that you can't do this while "supporting the troops."

He also added that we invaded Iraq for "fake reasons," which I particularly liked (see the last two years of this site).

So Russ is out there, changing the dynamics of the situation. Even in quite conservative northern counties, he said, people are feeling very queasy about the war. Russ said that he told a group up there, it wasn't a "radical county," and an older woman piped up and said, "We're getting there!!" On the heels of all this, he said, surely we're tired of hearing that every election is the most important of our lifetimes. But the last one was. And this next one will be. For it is nearly time to start getting things turned around. After more than a decade without control of Congress, the next one will be a "watershed" that will finally flip things around, he said.

When he departed the stage, heading for another fundraiser in Prescott, the Pierce County Democratic Chair suggested that once we have Congress, we can start talking about Impeachment. *Massive Applause*. That was exciting.

Ok a couple more pictures. This is What is Happening in Western Wisconsin politics. Hell Yeah.

(all photos by Me except for the one with me in it. that was my dad)