Greens to Feingold: Join Us

I first went to a Russ Feingold "Listening Session" in 2000, very early in that year's presidential campaign (I think the session was held in the Oshkosh Public Museum but I can't recall exactly). At the time Feingold had expressed disappointment at the Clinton administration's rightward drift and betrayal of some core traditional Democratic principles (most notably Clinton's abandonment of the nation's commitment to poor children when he signed away AFDC, his enthusiastic support of the death penalty and roving wiretaps after the Oklahoma City bombings, and his sellout of working people via his cheerleading for NAFTA).

So I asked Feingold if he would consider endorsing Ralph Nader for President. He said he admired Nader and supported his right to run, but "I'll always be a Democrat."

The next year I attended another Feingold Listening Session, this time in Omro. Looking back at my write-up of the event, I was reminded that Feingold was the only Senate Democrat who supported then Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson's attempt to become DNC Chair over Clinton money man Terry McAuliffe. Feingold said that grassroots Democrats "need to take the party back."

Howard Dean's ascendancy to the DNC post after McAuliffe's disastrous tenure was supposed to represent a return to the grassroots, but that appears to be more true at the rhetorical level than in actual practice. In Wisconsin, for example, we learn that the "Democratic Difference" is a message of "Freedom, Family, Fairness." I'm not making that up. I'm surprised they didn't add "Faith" to that list, especially since it works with the alliteration scheme and might be a big hit with the "values voter". (The Dems like alliterative schemes--when I ran on their ticket in 1996 I sat down with a group of elected Dems including Spencer Black, Shirley Krug, Walter Kunicki, and Jim Kreuser; they urged me to run on "Five Es"--Economy, Education, Environment, Elderly, and I can't remember what the fifth one was).

Meanwhile Russ Feingold, one of the few elected Democrats who really does connect with the grassroots, since 9/11 has found himself opposed by his Democratic peers on everything from opposition to the PATRIOT Act, setting a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, and his recent resolution to censure the president. So today in a press release the Wisconsin Green Party endorsed Feingold's censure resolution while inviting him to join the party. From the press release:

“We know that Senator Feingold is not getting much support from Democrats or Republicans for this minimal request for accountability," said Bob Poeschl, Co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party. “We would welcome Senator Feingold into the Green Party ­ a party that defends the Bill of Rights and the civil rights of Wisconsin citizens, and holds our President and other elected officials accountable. The Democratic Party’s silence on Feingold’s censure is the latest manifestation of its unwillingness to stand for even the most basic of principles - ­ those upon which our nation was founded.”

The Greens are under no illusion that Feingold will accept the invitation. He appears destined and happy to be the Dennis Kucinich of 2008: the progressive who excites especially young voters at the grassroots while the party's corporate seduced operatives choose a "moderate" as the nominee. Then, as Alexander Cockburn argues, Feingold will "give a powerful speech at the convention, pledging allegiance to the candidate."

At some point Russ needs to ask himself what his hero Fighting Bob LaFollette would do. LaFollette ran an independent campaign for president on the Progressive Party ticket when it became clear to him that the Republican Party could not be a force for progressive policy. Feingold today is as critical of the Democratic Party as LaFollette was of the Republicans in the 1920s. But Fighting Bob did something about it. Will Feingold?