Russ is Ready

Evaluating Russ Feingold's recent Senate activity, it is plain to see what he getting ready for...2008. He's sponsored a number of bills which would have prohibited raising salaries for members of Congress (S.60) and called for more efficiency in government health care programs (S.123). He's also been true to his Democratic base by sponsoring bills calling for a timeframe for troop withdrawal (S.RES. 171) and the abolition of racial profiling (S.2138).

His work on lobbying and campaign finance reform puts him in a unique position to claim a democratic moral high-ground as long as he's careful about where his war chest comes from.

Conventional wisdom dictates that in the post-Dixiecrat age, it is impossible for a non-Southern Democrat to win the White House because of the South's pension for voting as a block (and never for Northerners). Well, this may be true, but Feingold is positioning himself to steal at least three states (LA, MS & AL) with the 'Hurricane Katrina and Bankruptcy Relief and Community Protection Act' (S.1647) which he sponsored--which I can tell you that us folks on the Gulf Coast are well aware of the big screwing we're getting in DC in light of the 'you can't trust those corrupt coon-asses with money' argument.

To sum it up, Feingold is ready to burn through the primaries by saying that he is every bit the liberal Democrat that Hillary is, and he has the voting record to prove it. If he's pinned down by a heavily funded opposition campaign, he can try to remind people through free-media that he's worked to stop soft-money, lobbying, and a for-profit government. In a general election, he can tap into that nouveau 'Support the Troops, not the War' sentiment that seems to be going around by pointing to his record on the war. Then, if there is time for offensive thinking, he can blast Republicans for being the party of a big police-state government these days by referencing his work against the Patriot Act and expansive spending.

He seems ready to go, and I think we can all agree that this man is dying for the race to get going. He's played his cards better than the other Democratic contenders in the last 3 years or so.