I think I’m with Kevin Drum on this whole Feingold censure thing. It’s really not that surprising that not every Democratic senator would want to jump on the bandwagon with this. But I also don’t think there’s any particular reason to run from it like it’s Dem kryptonite or the plague. I’ve said this before. But I think the bigger problem for Dems is not the things they do but the very public hand-wringing and navel-gazing about how people might react to the things they do.
That doesn’t look good. And it doesn’t look good because it really isn’t good.
President Bush really does deserve to be held accountable for breaking the law and then even more for claiming after the fact that the law actually doesn’t apply to him. In constitutional terms, that bogus claim is a very big deal. So ‘censure’ him. Or don’t censure him. But most of all don’t get all bent out of shape or whiny about whether it might make some Bush supporter unhappy or might prompt some scold on the WaPo oped page to say tut-tut.
Will some swing-voter not agree? He or she will get over it.
Basically, the big tectonic plates of political motion are the key thing. And everybody should stop looking over their shoulders and jumping at every scary sound in the dark.
It’s the not the same issue exactly. But Ed Kilgore has some thoughts on a related issue — should there be a intra-Democratic party free-speech zone? It’s a good discussion to have. I’m hoping we can get it started over at TPMCafe.
