10/31/06 John Nichols: Kohl ignores Senate's oversight role
Capital Times
By John Nichols, Oct. 31, 2006
October 31, 2006
When U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold proposed in March that President Bush be censured for authorizing warrantless wiretapping of the telephone conversations of Americans and then lying about it, only a handful of Democrats had the intellectual honesty and the courage to stand with the junior senator from Wisconsin.
There was no question that Feingold was right to seek to hold the president to account for the wrongdoing associated with the illegal spying program. Nor was there any question that Feingold had chosen a moderate course suggesting a censure motion when, as the senator acknowledged, many of the offenses committed by the president rose to a level where talk of impeachment was appropriate.
Most importantly, Feingold framed his bold initiative in the context of the Constitution, which does not merely allow but in fact requires Congress to police the executive branch.
Yet Democratic leaders in the Senate were more worried about their images in an election year than they were about upholding the rule of law. In the end, only three senators California's Barbara Boxer, Iowa's Tom Harkin and Massachusetts' John Kerry co-sponsored Feingold's censure resolution.
Wisconsinites, who have felt a good measure of pride in their junior senator's leadership on this issue, should note that the name of the state's senior senator, Herb Kohl, is not on the list of those who supported Feingold's necessary initiative.
Instead of working with his fellow Wisconsin Democrat to check and balance an out-of-control executive, Kohl joined Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman in suggesting that the Senate should look for ways to work with the Bush administration to construct a legal framework for the spying program.
Kohl is up for re-election this fall, and he is again reminding Wisconsinites that he is his own man.
That's true. Kohl certainly has not made common cause with Feingold to oppose the war in Iraq, to battle the assaults on civil liberties contained in the Patriot Act or to hold the Bush-Cheney administration to account.
Contrast the senior senator's response to Feingold's censure proposal with that of Kohl's Green Party challenger in this fall's election, Rae Vogeler.
When Feingold proposed censure, Vogeler immediately endorsed his action, declaring that "censure is a tool of accountability in the Senate and is a good first step. I support the resolution of censure."
She also urged support for a resolution sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and co-sponsored by Wisconsin Democrats Tammy Baldwin and Gwen Moore, calling for establishing a select committee to determine whether articles of impeachment should be brought against members of the Bush administration.
Feingold is backing Kohl this fall. They have found common ground on some issues, and they are, after all, members of the same party.
But on the issue of holding President Bush to account, Feingold and Vogeler share the same values not to mention the same understanding of the constitutional duties of a senator.
There are other issues on which Eisman is conspicuously different from the corporate parties. One is his strong opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Another is calling for an immediate tuition freeze for in-state UW students, and tuition reduction in coming years. Still another is his support for instant-runoff voting.
Eisman wants to expand the discourse in this campaign. He accepted five debate invitations from civic- minded organizations, such as the League of Women Voters. Doyle and Green, in contrast, only appeared in the "We the People" and Wisconsin Broadcasters Association "debates," which allowed them to avoid facing Eisman.
As they learn of Eisman's exclusion, Wisconsinites tell our campaign they are outraged - regardless of who they plan to vote for - because debates are for the benefit of the voters, not the candidates. Until the voters see all the candidates and hear all their ideas, the democratic process in Wisconsin remains fundamentally flawed. Herrick is campaign manager for Nelson Eisman, the Green Party candidate for governor.